COVID-19

October 16, 2020: Back to School, It’s More Than Just a Trip to Target This Year: The ABC Science Collaborative (Danny Benjamin, MD, PhD; Kanecia Zimmerman, MD, MPH)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speakers

Danny Benjamin, MD, PhD
Kiser-Arena Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Duke University
Chair, Pediatric Trials Network
Deputy Director, Duke Clinical Research Institute

Kanecia O. Zimmerman, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Co-chair, ABC Science Collaborative
Duke University School of Medicine

Topic

Back to School, It’s More Than Just a Trip to Target This Year: The ABC Science Collaborative

Keywords

COVID-19; ABC Science Collaborative; Public school administration; Health disparities; Infection mitigation; Risk-benefit ratio; Community engagement

Key Points

  • The ABC Science Collaborative is a program that pairs scientists and physicians with school and community leaders to help understand the most current and relevant information about COVID-19. The program uses a data-driven approach to help school leaders make informed decisions about returning to school, using data from their own communities, with the goal of keeping teachers, children, and their local communities healthy and safe.
  • School boards, superintendents, principals, staff, and families are essential stakeholders in the ABC Science Collaborative.
  • Science shows that bringing kids back to school can be a success—if done the right way, including adherence to mask-wearing, hand hygiene, and physical distancing. Leadership support and implementing a coordinated, detailed plan are crucial to a successful approach.

Discussion Themes

The real power of the ABC Science Collaborative is the partnership between the researchers and stakeholders and their commitment to study the outcomes—and learn—together.

With scarce school resources, it’s better to maximize what has been shown to work in an interior environment, such as boosting adherence to masking and hand hygiene.

It could be said that “an ounce of data on COVID-19 provides more than an ounce of prevention.”

For resources and information, visit the ABC Science Collaborative website.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1

October 14, 2020: NIH Collaboratory COVID-19 Grand Rounds Continues With the ABC Science Collaborative

Posted on by Damon Seils

In this week’s COVID-19 Grand Rounds session, Dr. Danny Benjamin of Duke University will present “Back to School, It’s More Than Just a Trip to Target This Year: The ABC Science Collaborative.” The Grand Rounds session will be held on Friday, October 16, at 1:00 pm eastern. Join the online meeting.

The ABC Science Collaborative is a program of the Duke University School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine that “pairs scientists and physicians with school and community leaders to help them understand the most current and relevant data about COVID-19 so they may make decisions that will keep teachers, staff, and children safe if and when they return to the classroom.”

The NIH Collaboratory Coordinating Center is using its popular Grand Rounds platform to share late-breaking research and promote resources in support of clinical researchers affected by the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Previous COVID-19 Grand Rounds:

For more news and resources related to the COVID-19 public health emergency, see the COVID-19 Resources page.

October 2, 2020: Driving Toward Health Impact: Our Journey and Path Forward (Nakela Cook, MD, MPH)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speaker

Nakela L. Cook, MD, MPH
Executive Director
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)

Topic

Driving Toward Health Impact: Our Journey and Path Forward

Keywords

PCORI; Health outcomes; Health disparities; Patient-centered research; Comparative clinical effectiveness; COVID-19; Maternal health

Key Points

  • Despite improvements in health, disparities and variation in care remain—especially underscored by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.
  • PCORI funds studies that can help patients and those who care for them make better informed healthcare choices.
  • PCORI has funded the HERO Registry to assess COVID-19 exposure responses and outcomes within the community of healthcare workers. Other research support is targeted toward vulnerable populations, healthcare delivery, and emerging health trends.
  • With PCORI 2.0, new funding will be available for large-scale, high-impact comparative effectiveness trials. Each study will include an initial phase to determine the feasibility and viability of the study and maximize the likelihood of success during the full-scale phase.

Discussion Themes

What are your observations regarding COVID-19’s impact on health, healthcare, and research that you think will be critical for PCORI's strategy? What will bring about the necessary innovations to the system?

Addressing maternal health disparities is a high priority in PCORI 2.0. The next phase will also expand PCORI’s role in collecting and generating relevant evidence and focusing on a deliberate and transparent process for implementation.

How will PCORI broaden its reach to reduce outcome disparities among people with disabilities?

Read more about PCORI.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1

September 25, 2020: Accelerating the Nation’s COVID-19 Testing Capacity: An Update from the NIH’s RADx Program (Rick Bright, PhD; Rachael Fleurence, PhD)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speakers

Rick Bright, PhD
Senior Advisor to the NIH Director

Rachael Fleurence, PhD
Special Assistant to the NIH Director for COVID-19 Diagnostics

Topic

Accelerating the Nation’s COVID-19 Testing Capacity: An Update from the NIH’s RADx Program

Keywords

National Institutes of Health; COVID-19; Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx); COVID-19 testing protocols; Innovative technologies; Coronavirus testing

Key Points

  • The NIH launched the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative to speed innovation in the development, commercialization, and implementation of technologies for COVID-19 testing.
  • RADx is creating programs to rapidly scale-up testing across the country and enhance access to those most in need. Newer technologies offer user-friendly designs with lower cost and increased accessibility at home and at the point of care.
  • Deploying the right tests at the right time to the right people will be critical to managing the pandemic until a vaccine is available and beyond. Testing will still be necessary after the vaccine becomes available.

Discussion Themes

The supply chain continues to be a challenge in COVID-19 testing procedures, for example the availability of plastic tips and swabs. However, barriers are driving innovations such as saliva technologies and extraction-less approaches.

Are there efforts underway to link testing data from disparate sources such as EHR clinical data, administrative claims data, antibody testing, symptom trackers/COVID-19 registries?

A new goal will be implementing the real-time matching of COVID-19 hot spots with available testing.

Read more about the NIH’s RADx program and in a special report in New England Journal of Medicine.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1

September 23, 2020: NIH Collaboratory COVID-19 Grand Rounds Continues With the RADx Initiative

Posted on by Damon Seils

Photograph of Rick Bright and Rachael FleurenceIn this week’s COVID-19 Grand Rounds session, Dr. Rick Bright and Dr. Rachael Fleurence of the National Institutes of Health will present “Accelerating the Nation’s COVID-19 Testing Capacity: An Update From the NIH’s RADx Program.” The Grand Rounds session will be held on Friday, September 25, at 1:00 pm eastern. Join the online meeting.

The NIH Collaboratory Coordinating Center is using its popular Grand Rounds platform to share late-breaking research and promote resources in support of clinical researchers affected by the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Previous COVID-19 Grand Rounds:

For more news and resources related to the COVID-19 public health emergency, see the COVID-19 Resources page.

September 9, 2020: NIH Collaboratory COVID-19 Grand Rounds Continues With the CONNECTS Network of Networks

Posted on by Damon Seils

In this week’s COVID-19 Grand Rounds session, Dr. Gordon Bernard of Vanderbilt University and Dr. Sonia Thomas of RTI International will present “Launching CONNECTS: Collaborating Network of Networks for Evaluating COVID-19 and Therapeutic Strategies.” The Grand Rounds session will be held on Friday, September 9, at 1:00 pm eastern. Join the online meeting.

The NIH Collaboratory Coordinating Center is using its popular Grand Rounds platform to share late-breaking research and promote resources in support of clinical researchers affected by the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Previous COVID-19 Grand Rounds:

For more news and resources related to the COVID-19 public health emergency, see the COVID-19 Resources page.

August 21, 2020: Adaptive Platform Trials: Scalable from Breast Cancer to COVID (Laura Esserman, MD, MBA)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speaker

Laura Esserman, MD, MBA
Director, UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center
Alfred A. de Lorimier Endowed Chair in General Surgery
Professor of Surgery and Radiology, UCSF

Topic

Adaptive Platform Trials: Scalable from Breast Cancer to COVID

Keywords

COVID-19; Adaptive platform trial; Study design; Learning healthcare system; Collaborative research

Key Points

  • Adaptive trial design is an innovative, collaborative approach with the potential to maximize learning about treatments so as to prioritize therapeutic agents and drive better patient outcomes.
  • Adaptive platform trials are designed to identify early endpoints that can be captured in the course of care. Multiple agents are evaluated simultaneously, and those with a potential for big impact are advanced quickly.
  • As a “learning engine,” adaptive platform trials could be used to accelerate high-impact treatments for COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Discussion Themes

Essential to an adaptive platform trial are checklists of data and nimble EHR tools that evolve as the disease evolves.

What is the process to monitor for and make the decision to modify the standard of care backbone?

Read more about adaptive platform trials at the I-SPY Trials website and a recent Grand Rounds presentation, Optimized Learning While Doing: The REMAP-CAP Adaptive Platform Trial.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1

Grand Rounds September 25: Accelerating the Nation’s COVID-19 Testing Capacity: An Update from the NIH’s RADx Program

Speakers:

Rick Bright, PhD
Senior Advisor to the NIH Director

Rachael Fleurence, PhD
Special Assistant to the NIH Director for COVID-19 Diagnostics

Topic: Accelerating the Nation’s COVID-19 Testing Capacity: An Update from the NIH’s RADx Program
Date: Friday, September 25, 2020, 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET

Meeting Info: To check whether you have the appropriate players installed for UCF (Universal Communications Format) rich media files, go to https://dukemed.webex.com/dukemed/systemdiagnosis.php.

To join the online meeting:
Go to https://dukemed.webex.com/dukemed/j.php?MTID=me3404f6c28e0458f1d40142cbaf90fa5

You must log in to the URL first.
Click ‘Audio Conference’
Choose ‘I will call in’, select the Toll number.
Dial in using the information from the dialog box that appears.
Be certain to use the Access Code AND the Attendee ID.

Troubleshooting:
If the URL above does not work, go to dukemed.webex.com and enter:
Meeting Number: 120 711 6379
Meeting Password: 1234

For Audio ONLY:
Call-in toll number (US/Canada): 1-650-479-3207
Access code: 120 711 6379

NOTE: For Toll-free users, the call-back (call me) services are also available.

Grand Rounds September 11: Launching CONNECTS: Collaborating Network of Networks for Evaluating COVID-19 and Therapeutic Strategies

Speakers:

Gordon R. Bernard, MD
CONNECTS ACC Science Unit P
Professor of Medicine
Executive Vice President for Research
Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Science
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Sonia Thomas, DrPH
CONNECTS ACC Principal Investigator
Senior Research Statistician
RTI International

Topic: Launching CONNECTS (Collaborating Network of Networks for Evaluating COVID-19 and Therapeutic Strategies): A Partnership Between Research Triangle Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and the NHLBI
Date: Friday, September 11, 2020, 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET

Meeting Info: To check whether you have the appropriate players installed for UCF (Universal Communications Format) rich media files, go to https://dukemed.webex.com/dukemed/systemdiagnosis.php.

To join the online meeting:
Go to https://dukemed.webex.com/dukemed/j.php?MTID=m7516d59dab184670d6fc892b1955b4eb

You must log in to the URL first.
Click ‘Audio Conference’
Choose ‘I will call in’, select the Toll number.
Dial in using the information from the dialog box that appears.
Be certain to use the Access Code AND the Attendee ID.

Troubleshooting:
If the URL above does not work, go to dukemed.webex.com and enter:
Meeting Number: 730 486 227
Meeting Password: 1234

For Audio ONLY:
Call-in toll number (US/Canada): 1-650-479-3207
Access code: 730 486 227

NOTE: For Toll-free users, the call-back (call me) services are also available.

August 19, 2020: NIH Collaboratory COVID-19 Grand Rounds Series Puts Spotlight on Adaptive Platform Trials

Posted on by Damon Seils

Photo of Dr. Laura EssermanIn this week’s COVID-19 Grand Rounds session, Dr. Laura Esserman of the University of California, San Francisco will present “Adaptive Platform Trials: Scalable From Breast Cancer to COVID.” The Grand Rounds session will be held on Friday, August 21, at 1:00 pm eastern. Join the online meeting.

The NIH Collaboratory Coordinating Center is using its popular Grand Rounds platform to share late-breaking research and promote resources in support of clinical researchers affected by the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Previous COVID-19 Grand Rounds:

For more news and resources related to the COVID-19 public health emergency, see the COVID-19 Resources page.