GUMC COVID-19 Response Archive

GUMC’s Rebecca Katz, PhD, MPH, director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security, has been named as an advisor for President-elect Joe Biden’s new coronavirus task force.

In a new report, Georgetown global health experts say the success of any effort to redress pandemic preparedness failures demonstrated by COVID-19 requires a re-centering of governance that would include greater accountability, transparency, equity, participation and the rule of law.

Ambassador Mark Dybul, MD, professor of medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center and co-director of its Center for Global Health Practice and Impact, has been named to a prestigious panel tasked with examining the World Health Organization’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For countless hours over months, Kelli Giffin, who manages the O’Neill Family Foundation Clinical Simulation Center in St. Mary’s Hall, an experiential learning laboratory, worked to conceptualize and create a web-based simulation tool suitable for use via distance learning during the pandemic.

Misconceptions about the way climate and weather impact exposure and transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, create false confidence and have adversely shaped risk perceptions, say a team of Georgetown University researchers.

Georgetown University Medical Center biochemist Mark Danielsen, PhD, thinks he has a solution for making a better test for COVID-19.

An online COVID-19 symptom tracking tool developed by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center ensures a person’s confidentiality while being able to actively monitor their symptoms.

Georgetown is home to a community of researchers collaborating on innovative ways to fight COVID-19. Learn more about the groundbreaking research underway and why it’s happening at Georgetown.

Despite the difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the clinical research teams at Georgetown have worked tirelessly, remotely and on campus, to continue supporting researchers and study participants.

A complete understanding of how the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a public health disaster will require a full investigation akin to the 9/11 Commission, says Georgetown University physician Ranit Mishori, MD, MHS, FAAFP.

Undergraduates Janessa Mendoza (NHS’22) and Sannidhi Shashikiran (NHS’22) were scheduled to travel to Alaska to teach health literacy. Due to COVID-19, they pivoted instead to teaching virtually.

Christina Garza, MD (C’01, M’08), assistant professor of psychiatry at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, has had to adapt quickly to be able to provide accessible and compassionate care for her patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Megan Berard (NHS’12), a family nurse practitioner at an outpatient cardiac clinic in Austin, has seen firsthand how COVID-19 harms her patients who don’t have the disease.

Amid a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and in anticipation of outbreaks intensifying over the summer, members of Georgetown’s Center for Global Health Science and Security joined other experts in launching a new policy mapping tool and comprehensive database.

In March, Tanvee Singh (M’22) was diagnosed with COVID-19. Determined to find a silver lining in her experience, she donated plasma at the NIH Clinical Center when she recovered.

Public health experts have outlined four key safeguards necessary during the development of a COVID-19 vaccine that will ensure the public can trust that an approved vaccine is safe and effective.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgetown Lombardi’s cancer genetic counselors always provided pre-test sessions in person, and genetic testing results were provided to patients over the phone. Now, the pandemic has helped move the idea of remote genetic counseling for familial cancer risk from controversial to accepted.

Kathy (Rawlings) Mucci, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital’s assistant vice president of perioperative services, reflects on her Georgetown education, her career path and leading during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the gulf of health disparities and social injustice in Washington, DC. For Georgetown’s Health Justice Alliance, a collaboration between Georgetown Law and the university’s medical center students and faculty, the havoc created by the crisis makes their work all the more important.

When MedStar Health, Georgetown University Medical Center’s medical education and clinical partner, needed to ramp up its telehealth capacity in a very short time frame in early March, Georgetown medical students stepped in to help make it happen.

As protests against racial injustice continue in the U.S. and around the world, the Center for Global Health Science and Security has published guidance and social media infographics to help organizers, governments and individuals proactively take steps to minimize the risk of COVID-19.

The typical rites of passage marking the School of Medicine Class of 2020’s final year have looked different, as is what awaits them when they start their residencies.

GUMC launched multiple COVID-19-related research projects, including ways to track, slow and stop the outbreak, as well as generate ideas for potential therapies or vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease.

SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus that jumped from bats to humans, has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, the worst global health crisis in a century. That crisis, in turn, is wreaking economic havoc that could dwarf the Great Depression. Top global health experts lay out a global response to the pandemic in a white paper released on April 23, 2020.

Interim Dean of Biomedical Research Moshe Levi, MD, and a team of researchers are working to find out why some people who contract the disease deteriorate quickly amid a “cytokine storm.”

While acknowledging that much of the novel coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented, particularly in terms of its geographic reach and infection rate, Georgetown researchers point to some universal lessons from previous outbreaks.

Georgetown University global health researchers are developing a system utilizing real-time syndromic surveillance to detect early health indicators of the community spread of COVID-19.

The GU Center for Global Health Practice and Impact’s Nigeria team has set up a COVID-19 microsite to provide rapid disease tracking across the country.

Unable to provide medical care to DC residents experiencing homelessness, the HOYA Clinic’s student volunteers found a way to assist them virtually via a fundraising campaign for essential supplies.

Read more about the national MedSupply Drive they organized, and find out how to donate unused personal protective equipment.

A new online tool that gathers and organizes COVID-19 research and trending conversations about virus-related research was recognized as the winning professional entry to the COVID-19 Data Challenge from the Pandemic Data Room. The Data Challenge was led by QED Group in partnership with Georgetown University, Medstar Health, Amazon, Tableau, The Reis Group, IDS, Clear Outcomes, Geopoll, Exovera and others.

Human science alum Paul Jacob “Jake” Bueno de Mesquita (NHS’12) researched influenza transmission to earn his PhD. He has now turned his attention to understanding COVID-19.

Catherine Zolbrod Freeman (NHS’17) and Moira Redmond (NHS’17), who usually practice as registered nurses with pediatric patients, have been working together to care for adult patients with COVID-19 at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.

Clarisza Runtung (G’21) combines her love of music and nursing to create virtual performances to help address isolation and loneliness among socially distancing senior citizens.

– Human science major Safiullah Rauf (NHS’21), an expeditionary medical facility corpsman in the Navy Reserve, helped provide medical relief to New York on the USNS Comfort.
– Arielle Tango (G’21), a master’s-degree student in the Family Nurse Practitioner Program and a sergeant in the Florida National Guard, has worked on the COVID-19 response in South Florida.