As the world is getting back to some normalcy, medical experts want to reemphasize the pandemic isn’t over, which is why the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s research team is trying to understand the impact COVID-19 has had on first responders.
OSU Wexner Medical Center and researchers at the OSU College of Medicine have been awarded a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Cancer Institute in the National Institutes of Health to study the long-term, longitudinal impact of COVID-19 on first responders, healthcare workers, and the general population.
Ashish Panchal, a professor of emergency medicine at OSU, said the goal is to enroll 2,000 first responders– including their family members or those they have close contact with. “The big focus about first responders for us is that they’re the ones on the front lines,” Panchal said.
The grant will follow first responders for five years.