From the moment the novel coronavirus made its way into the region, UC Health’s frontline clinicians and workers went to work to save lives.
March 3, 2020: COVID-19 Core Team is introduced by Richard P. Lofgren, MD, UC Health President & CEO. The team includes experts in emergency management and infection prevention, as well as system leadership. The team includes Stewart Wright, MD, associate chief medical officer and associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the UC College of Medicine, Maria Friday, MS, director of Emergency Management, George Smulian, MD, medical director of Infection Prevention and professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine at the UC College of Medicine, Jennifer Forrester, MD, medical director of the Infectious Diseases Center and associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the UC College of Medicine, Laura Schuster, CIC, manager of Infection Prevention and Evie Alessandrini, MD, executive vice president & chief medical office and interim chief operations officer. Over the past year, the team has reviewed hundreds of documents, aligned and re-aligned with government agencies, coordinated with local health systems, influenced and supported public health at the state and local level and, above all, has prioritized the health and wellbeing of our patients, staff and clinicians as they introduced and implemented best practices in Infection Prevention during disrupted operations. Each week, the COVID-19 Core Team shares updates and important information with employees on the system’s response to the pandemic.
March 17, 2020: UC Health opens drive-thru COVID-19 screening and testing clinic on the Clifton Campus.
March 30, 2020: UC Health Precision Medicine Laboratory begins performing in-house testing for COVID-19. To date, our lab has processed over 200,000 COVID-19 tests.
Spring 2020: Richard P. Lofgren, MD, UC Health President & CEO, is named leader of “Zone 3” in the Hospital Preparedness Regions by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. Zone 3 comprises 16 counties across Southwest Ohio. In this role, Dr. Lofgren has helped convene the region’s healthcare leaders to confront a shared enemy – COVID-19. Dr. Lofgren was also named chair of the Healthcare Collaborative. “When the pandemic hit, all of the health systems in our community got together and said that we’re no longer competitors. We’re collaborators with a common enemy and a shared goal,” he said.
July 2020: Ahmad Sedaghat, MD, PhD, associate professor and director of rhinology, allergy and anterior skull base surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the UC College of Medicine, and a UC Health physician, leads international study to examine whether depressed mood or anxiety in COVID-19 patients may possibly be a sign the virus affects the central nervous system. Throughout the pandemic, Dr. Sedaghat has studied how COVID-19 causes the loss of taste and smell.
July 2020: Preliminary data from researchers at the UC Cancer Center show that immunotherapy doesn’t necessarily worsen complications for patients with both COVID-19 and cancer. These findings were presented by Layne Weatherford, PhD, UC postdoctoral fellow, at the American Association for Cancer Research Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer, on July 20, 2020. “We are continuing to investigate whether immunotherapy causes an increased production of these proteins by immune cells from COVID-19 patients, but our initial findings are showing that immunotherapy is not significantly impacting it,” said Trisha Wise-Draper, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology Oncology at the UC College of Medicine, medical of the UC Cancer Center Clinical Trials Office and a UC Health oncologist.
August 2020: Researchers from the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center create app to help address COVID-related anxiety in children. Jeffrey Strawn, MD, associate professor and anxiety expert in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the UC College of Medicine, helped lead the study to address ways to combat stress and uncertainties that have been caused by the pandemic.
Aug. 25, 2020: UC Health begins phase 3 trial for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. The study is co-led by Carl J. Fichtenbaum, MD, UC Health infectious diseases physician and professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine at the UC College of Medicine, and Maggie Powers-Fletcher, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine at the UC College of Medicine.
Sept. 1, 2020: Brett Kissela, MD, Albert Barnes Voorheis Chair and professor in the Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, senior associate dean for clinical research at the UC College of Medicine and chief of research services for UC Health, enrolls as participant in Moderna vaccine trial. “The only way out of this is through science,” he says. “With over 20 years of experience as a researcher, this is a time when I can personally make a difference and help advance the field from the other side of the fence.”
Dec. 14, 2020: UC Health receives 975 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to distribute to frontline healthcare workers.
Dec. 23, 2020: With EUA authorization approved, UC Health receives shipment of 3,100 Moderna COVID-19 vaccines and begins to vaccinate frontline healthcare workers.