OSUCCC – James physicians, nurses, allied medical personnel, researchers and support staff displayed remarkable resilience and an ability to work within extraordinary safety measures that were implemented throughout Ohio State’s health care system to protect patients and caregivers alike from the COVID-19 threat that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the United States alone.
Through such precautionary measures as universal masking of staff and patients, frequent sanitizing, continual temperature and symptom monitoring, restricting visitors, increasing the use of telemedicine or “virtual” appointments when possible, and testing all patients for COVID-19 before surgical, diagnostic and screening procedures, the OSUCCC – James diligently balanced quality cancer care and COVID-19 risk reduction.
Researchers and clinicians at the OSUCCC – James also led or participated in clinical trials or interdisciplinary studies aimed at quelling COVID-19. Here are examples:
- In a pair of phase II clinical trials led by Arnab Chakravarti, MD, of the OSUCCC – James, patients undergo a single treatment of whole-lung radiation to target and reduce pulmonary inflammation associated with COVID-19 infection. And a phase II clinical trial led by Jennifer Woyach, MD, seeks to determine if an oral cancer drug called ibrutinib can also help patients with cancer or other immunocompromised conditions recover from COVID-19.
- Before the pandemic, the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center used telehealth visits for less than 1% of patient visits. But within a few weeks of the outbreak in Ohio in March 2020, telehealth accounted for more than 60% of total visits. Caregivers logged over 2,500 telehealth visits per day while maintaining high patient-satisfaction levels. Ohio State researchers shared clinical and operations guidance gleaned from this transition in a paper published in the JMIR Public Health and Surveillance.
- Syed Husain, MBBS, associate professor in the Division of Colorectal Surgery, developed an invention that doubles ventilator capacity to assist in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Husain, an associate attending physician at The James, presented his invention at a COVID-19 Inventor Showcase at Ohio State.
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved solutions created by scientists at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center that expanded and accelerated COVID-19 testing across Ohio. This involved creating a “recipe” for a liquid called viral transport media (VTM) that goes in vials contained in COVID-19 Test Kits. Jacob Yount, PhD, of the OSUCCC – James, led the project.
- To address the need for additional personal protective equipment for health care workers, Ohio State’s College of Engineering and College of Nursing Innovation Studio implemented a system and method to provide 3-D printed visors with face shields to health care workers at the Wexner Medical Center and the OSUCCC – James. The initiative stemmed from a collaboration between Karilyn Larkin, MD, and Carlos Castro, PhD, both of the OSUCCC – James.
- Cancer control researchers at the OSUCCC – James received a $100,000 grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study how cancer prevention, screening, treatment and survivorship behaviors are impacted within the context of COVID-19 environmental constraints. The study, led by Electra Paskett, PhD, MSPH, associate director for population sciences at the OSUCCC – James, is a collaboration of faculty in Ohio State’s College of Medicine and College of Public Health.
- Electra Paskett, PhD, MSPH, and Rebecca Jackson, MD, director of Ohio State’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science, are leading a project supported by a $5 million, two-year award from the NIH RADx-UP program to fund initiatives to implement COVID-19 testing strategies in populations disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
OSUCCC – James Activities Support National Anti-Racism Movement
Amid an escalating anti-racism movement and increasing calls for racial and social justice in the United States during 2020, the OSUCCC – James held or participated in activities supporting the cause.
- The OSUCCC – James joined efforts by the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center to address racism within the organizations — efforts that are embodied in an Anti-Racism Action Plan (ARAP) that was launched in summer 2020.
- Darrell M. Gray II, MD, MPH, associate professor in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at Ohio State, where he also is in the Cancer Control Program and serves as deputy director for cancer health equity at the OSUCCC – James, is a co-lead for ARAP and has played an important role in its development and initiatives.
- That plan has led to such actions as: assembling a diversified Anti-Racism Oversight Committee that widens representation across the Wexner Medical Center, the OSUCCC – James, health science colleges’ deans, Diversity Council, Women in Medicine and Science (WIMS), and the Health Equity Steering Committee; creating Anti-Racism Action Groups focused on specific topics to develop initiatives for implementation across the medical center and health sciences colleges; selection of a cross-section of champions representing the various parts of the organization to lead the Anti-Racism Action Groups and outlining group charters with the more than 140 faculty and staff who were nominated to participate; establishing an Anti-Racism Initiatives website containing ARAP-related content along with educational materials and links about racism; and others.
- In addition, Ohio State’s Diversity Council created a 21-Day Anti-Racism Challenge for individuals, groups, units or departments. Participants take one action each day to further their understanding of power, privilege, supremacy, systemic racism, oppression and equity. OSUCCC – James leaders participated and encouraged others to do so.
- The OSUCCC – James leadership team organized a series of faculty and staff open forums on racial injustice and inequality within the workplace, and on actions that can be taken toward systemic change.
- In solidarity with health care providers and medical students across the country, students in Ohio State’s College of Medicine brought faculty and staff from the OSUCCC – James and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center together on June 5 to kneel in honor of George Floyd and countless others who have suffered from racial injustice. The “White Coats for Black Lives” ceremony represented a call for a renewed commitment to diversity, inclusion and equality throughout the nation.