Research Update

The existing research infrastructure and active collaboration with large emergency medicine clinical trial networks positioned our team to implement trials of novel therapeutics and diagnostics for COVID-19. The volume and swift pace of COVID-19 trials have challenged the research team; however, the most significant task has been the moral obligation to engage every possible COVID-19 infected patient, allowing an opportunity for a potentially lifesaving therapeutic not otherwise available.  

Donned in full PPE, investigators and coordinators have sweated through countless hours in the emergency department, hospital floor, and intensive care unit rooms consenting for clinical trials. Given the extreme isolation faced by COVID-19 infected patients, it is common during clinical trial enrollments (that can last up to an hour) to assist patients with activities of daily living such as repositioning in bed, going to the bathroom, technical assistance with phones, and even eating meals. This type of engagement establishes an emotional investment not typical for clinical trial enrollments. As such, the team has mourned those who died and celebrated excitedly for those who survived to discharge. 

Since March of 2020, the UMMC Emergency Department research team has enrolled over 600 patients in more than fifteen COVID-19 related clinical trials. COVID-19 therapeutic trials for inpatients have included novel monoclonal antibodies, convalescent plasma, ACE inhibitors, and hydroxychloroquine. The team has also assisted industry partners in trials of rapid COVID-19 antigen tests, including the study of the Abbott BinaxNow COVID-19 antigen assay that resulted in the FDA’s emergency use authorization of the product.Additionally, the research team has performed nationally recognized epidemiologic studies of our UMMC health care workers, including an evaluation of ED provider risks of acquiring COVID-19 and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination on all UMMC health care workers.

Beyond COVID-19, UMMC Emergency Medicine research prioritizes and performs a wide array of emergency medicine-related research, including sepsis, emerging infectious diseases, heart failure, stroke, public health testing, toxicology, and disparities research. In 2020, the UMMC ED initiated an NIH-funded, pragmatic clinical trial of targeted versus non-targeted hepatitis C virus testing in the ED that has already tested thousands of patients and linked to care hundreds of patients with previously unrecognized infections. In 2022, the team will be implementing a trial to investigate a novel, all-oral antivenom for snakebite envenomations.