Every day brings more news of the progress of the COVID-19 pandemic, little of it good. Epidemiologists and researchers around the world are racing the clock to find an answer to stop COVID-19. Rather than working in isolation and duplicating effort, scientists are connecting across the globe, sharing lessons learned from treating patients and research breakthroughs in an effort to save lives.
The University of Michigan recently launched in-house testing for COVID-19 patients. The U-M Center for Drug Repurposing (UM-CDR), Infectious Disease division, and other researchers across campus are exploring drugs that could be repurposed to help COVID-19 patients. To aid accessibility to crucial COVID-19 patient data, the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) launched a COVID-19 Rapid Response Registry to offer a centralized clinical characterization and management resource of what the scientific and health care community has learned through this public health pandemic.
With the launch of a new Coronavirus research registry, U-M readies a strong defense against COVID-19.
The Registry will gather data from coronavirus patients in order to inform front-line clinical care decisions in real-time, trends in treatments, hospital-level projections, and future research designs. Led by Emily Somers, Interdisciplinary Research Initiatives Faculty Lead, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical School and Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, and Emily Martin, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, the registry was created in partnership by MICHR, partners from the School of Public Health, Institute of Healthcare Policy and Innovation, and more.
“Tackling this novel public health threat requires classic public health measures, such as social distancing,” Somers explained. “Registries are another fundamental epidemiologic tool and are essential to our basic understanding of disease. The COVID-19 Rapid Response Registry will further serve as a resource for scientists to enable acceleration of cutting-edge research.”
The COVID-19 Rapid Response Registry will be a part of the international consortium ISARIC, thus contributing to patient data collected around the globe. By pooling our resources across campus and internationally, we can all work together to find the best treatments for COVID-19 as quickly as possible.
For registry-related questions or to arrange a virtual Research Development Core/COVID research consultation, please complete the online form.