The Atrium Health COVID-19 Registry: What is it and how can you help? Christine B. Turley, MD, the vice-chair of research at Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital and founder of the STRIVE Vaccine team, gives us all the details about this upcoming vaccine clinical trial.
Currently, there are no antiviral medicines available to treat COVID-19 and no licensed vaccines to prevent infection or serious illness related to the disease. We’ve opened a voluntary vaccine research registry which will allow people to learn more about vaccine research and development. People who take part in the registry may be invited to participate in COVID-19 vaccine trials in the future.
“We’re part of the national network that’s working on offering these vaccine research trials across the country,” says Dr. Turley. “The first step is connecting people to a vaccine registry. We’re reaching out to our community because the most important piece of being able to do this work well is our community. We need volunteers who want to be part of this solution and who want to be part of the science and development here.”
Since community involvement is the next step in gaining robust data that can contribute to an effective vaccine, we asked her some key questions about the trial and how the community can get involved.
What does STRIVE stand for?
The STRIVE for Healthier Futures Program, also known as just STRIVE, is the Atrium Health Vaccine Research Program. STRIVE stands for:
- Strategic
- Research
- Innovation
- Vaccines
- Engagement
The program has two parts. The first is a vaccine registry, which is what we’re working on now. Then, the next phase proceeds to actual vaccine clinical trials. We’ll work with a national network to study COVID-19 vaccines in development. In a clinical trial, investigators will create a research plan and implement specific approaches for selected participants.
What is the STRIVE Registry?
The STRIVE Registry is a way for people to sign up to learn more about vaccine research trials and to put their name on a list to possibly be considered to take part in our COVID-19 research in the future. This phase is not yet a clinical trial – but instead, allows participants to get educational information about COVID-19 vaccine research and development and lets us know they might be interested in participating in vaccine trials in the future.
A vaccine registry is imperative to enlist volunteers that may be interested in participating in a vaccine trial. The enrollment period is usually pretty short for these and, if we don’t have a list of names in advance, it makes it very hard to reach enough people in time.
In the case of COVID-19, as in other research, we are seeking a diverse pool of volunteers. This will help us collect information that could benefit all our communities and save more lives in the future.
Why is diversity crucial to the trial?
The virus that causes COVID-19 has revealed a lot about our health care systems. Communities of color have been affected in a much greater proportion than would be expected.
In our African American, Hispanic and Latinx communities, people are being hospitalized with COVID-19 at between four and five times the rate of our white communities. That’s really a very stark difference. To help our community as a whole, we need diverse volunteers to help us collect data that will help us develop a vaccine that will save the greatest amount of lives across all segments of the population.
What does it mean if I sign up for the registry?
Signing up for the registry is NOT signing up for a vaccine trial. It is a way to tell us you might be interested in participating in a future vaccine trial. It is not a guarantee of being able to
enroll in one. Once we’re ready to start a vaccine research trial, we will start reviewing information in the registry and start contacting individuals that meet the criteria for the trial.
Members of the study team will reach out by phone, text, mail or email, based on the contact information you provide, to talk over the study with you and give you more information. If you’re interested and eligible, we will talk about the next steps for scheduling.
Why is Atrium Health invested in this, and what makes this registry unique?
Because having a solution to the pandemic matters to all of us – our community; our way of life – and it can benefit not just us, but everyone around the world. Atrium Health is perfectly positioned to develop and lead a registry and trial of this magnitude.
We are offering this registry and trial because it is such an important part of leading to healthier futures for all of us. We have robust researchers, a strong investigational pharmacy, deep roots across the communities we serve, a widely diverse population base and more. We have been a national leader in the care of patients with COVID-19 with our virtual hospital and our mobile testing. Offering vaccine trials is part of our commitment to being at the forefront of finding a cure – improving health, elevating hope and advancing healing – for all.
When will we find a vaccine for COVID-19?
It typically takes 12 to 18 months to develop and test a safe, effective vaccine in human clinical trials. We won’t likely have a licensed vaccine available until sometime in 2021 – at the very earliest. If everything went perfectly and we had a home run on the first thing we studied, it will be 2021 before that type of protection is available widely. That means that if we want to offer some protection to our community – to our whole community – research can provide a way to do that.
There’s an enormous amount of work happening around COVID-19 vaccines. As of August, there are 31 vaccines worldwide in some stage of testing in people and more than 100 in earlier stages of development. It’s a process, because we’re trying to learn about the immune response to COVID-19 and use that information to help us develop the best vaccines. We need to understand as much as we can about what’s happening to the immune system in response to COVID-19 so that we can use that in the design of the vaccines themselves.
How do we sign up?
If you’re over the age of 18, you can sign up for the STRIVE registry online. The registry can be reached at AtriumHealth.org/COVIDVACCINE. You will be asked to review and consent to participate and, if you do, then you will be asked to give us some brief information about yourself.
Research and clinical trials are the best hope for ending the COVID-19 pandemic. Atrium Health is committed to helping find the safest, most effective vaccines through the STRIVE vaccine program.
“It is a really an organization-wide endeavor,” Dr. Turley notes. “People have just jumped into it – leaned into this idea that we need a solution to this pandemic and a vaccine is a way forward for us. It’s very hopeful work. Everybody’s looking for hope right now and vaccines are all about hope because if we can prevent this, we can get back to ‘regular’ life.”
For more information about Atrium Health’s COVID-19 research registry, call 833-451-1188, visit AtriumHealth.org/COVIDVACCINE or email STRIVEVaccineRegistry@atriumhealth.org
