COVID-19 Research

Research Related to COVID-19

Professors Sue Feldman and Mohan Thirumalai are shaping the way universities return to campus.

SUE FELDMAN, RN, PhD

Professor, Director, UAB Graduate Programs in Health Informatics

Drs. Feldman and Thirumalai and their team have been working around the clock to design and implement tools that are part of Alabama’s higher education campus entry program.

Gov. Kay Ivey used over $30 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding to provide robust testing, symptom monitoring and notification of COVID-19 exposure for students — making this the most comprehensive higher-education entry plan in the country.

The plan included GuideSafe™, a multitool platform comprised of three key components: GuideSafe™ HealthCheck, GuideSafe™ Exposure Notification Application and GuideSafe™ Event Passport. Also included under this platform are key spread mitigation behaviors for ongoing mass adoption.

“As students and educators make the transition back to campus, it is critical that they have the tools to do so safely, I am proud to provide the resources to help make that possible. Not only is this partnership enabling our colleges and universities to welcome back their students, it is also setting the tone and bar for the rest of the nation,” Governor Ivey said. “Alabama is innovative and, during a health crisis, we are showing the country the great benefit of partnership, ingenuity and determination.”

MOHANRAJ THIRUMALAI, PhD

Assistant Professor UAB Health Informatics

“We are pleased to provide the GuideSafe™ platform to all public colleges and universities across our state,” said Finis St. John, UA System Chancellor.

Alabama is one of the first states in the U.S. to launch Google and Apple’s joint exposure notification technology. “We have worked extremely hard to leverage research and innovation, community service, patient care and education to make a positive difference,” said UAB President Ray L. Watts. “This new app – using Google and Apple-led technology and created by UAB faculty, staff and MotionMobs – is a necessary tool in our effort to return to college campuses safely.”

Complementing the GuideSafe™ app capabilities are the GuideSafe™ platform’s HealthCheck and Event Passport components. GuideSafe™ HealthCheck is an assessment tool that allows users to report COVID-19 related symptoms. Daily participation is encouraged, but compliance and enforcement are at the discretion of individual institutions. “These tools enable every participating college, university and K-12 school to engage faculty, students and staff in on-going monitoring of COVID-19 symptoms, exposure and risk,” said Sue Feldman.

GuideSafe™ Event Passport assists with access to facilities, meetings and events with over 10 participants. After completing HealthCheck, an algorithm renders an event passport for admission. “The GuideSafe™ Event Passport is about showing up healthy – or not showing up at all,” emphasized Feldman.

As college campuses and activities resume, ADPH and UAB, along with partner organizations, will update the public about the integration of GuideSafe™ and its multifaceted components into the collective fight against COVID-19. ■

➤ For more information, visit guidesafe.org

HSA faculty are actively engaged in COVID-19 research.

Allyson Hall and Monica Aswani are leading a university-wide interest group focused on developing a research agenda on health disparities and COVID-19. They are using an institutional level learning healthcare system framework to understand UAB’s response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic within the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System and the entire academic enterprise. The processes, networks, and adapted framework presented support ongoing efforts to develop actionable solutions to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation.

Allyson Hall has been funded on a grant to study COVID-19 awareness in minority populations.

Allyson Hall and Larry Hearld have key roles in a big grant ($3.3 million for two years) to improve testing for COVID-19 in the state of Alabama.

Amy Landry and Heather Lee are collaborating with colleagues from Boston University, Auburn University, University of Washington, Trinity, and Ohio State to understand the experiences of graduate health management students and faculty related to the abrupt transition from on-campus to online learning and have fielded two surveys and conducted a series of focus groups.

Amanda Dorsey, Ashleigh Allgood and alumni

Jeffrey Dobyns, MD (MSHA Class E52, MSHQS

2019) and Josh Hagood are researching the critical success factors and lessons learned from the UAB Department of Anesthesia's COVID-19 testing strategy for surgical cases. Several factors allowed the Department to seamlessly ramp down and then accelerate the number of surgical cases. Findings include a culture of patient safety and quality, a robust telemedicine infrastructure, leveraging an external partnership with Southern Research Institute for rapid testing and results, and including IT in all decision-making processes. Katherine Meese is conducting research on employee stress, well-being and resilience during COVID-19. She has just completed an employee survey of a large health system, and is analyzing the source and magnitude of various stressors during COVID-19 as well as protective factors such as individual and team resilience, and civility climate. She is also conducting research on the rapid implementation of an inpatient telehealth system to facilitate PPE conservation and reduce provider exposure to COVID-19.

Tapan Mehta is collaborating with United Health Group in mining their claims, lab and hospitalization data to assess the risk associated with the cluster of cardio metabolic conditions with COVID-19 related hospitalizations. They are assessing the association between cardio metabolic (diabetic, lipid, hypertension, obesity) medications and its role in mitigating or increasing risk associated with COVID-19 related complications.

Allyson Hall, Sue Feldman and Ria Hearld

are working with UAB Hospital Medicine to evaluate the impact of inpatient telehealth on outcomes. Specifically, the study examines the use of iPads to reduce the number of times physicians enter patient rooms to reduce exposure and conserve PPE.

Ferhat Zengul, Bunyamin Ozaydin and several UAB colleagues are using text mining to analyze 22,336 COVID-19-focused research abstracts to reveal areas of emerging scholarship. Findings suggest early research themes: 1) Disease Severity & Outcomes, 2) General Epidemiology, 3) Epidemiologic Predictive Modeling, 4) Vaccine Development Research, 5) Health System Response, 6) Mechanism of Disease, 7) Mental/Behavioral Health, 8) Literature Review, 9) Pulmonary Imaging/ Radiography, 10) Initial Outbreak and Disease Presentation, 11) Detection/Testing. ■