As the state’s largest health care provider, Northwell Health’s 72,000 caring professionals are helping New Yorkers who need them every day in the battle against COVID-19. Northwell is caring for more infected patients during this pandemic than any other provider, while also pioneering research to address this global crisis. They have rapidly deployed our team to utilize research, artificial intelligence, big data analytics and other technologies to effectively address the myriad of challenges associated with the war against COVID-19. While the immediate focus is to support the needs of our communities and front-line care providers within the epicenter of this devastating disease, they anticipate that the insights, results and knowledge gained from these research efforts will be of tremendous advantage to other parts of the nation in the coming weeks and months. Through publications and presentations Northwell will share their findings for the benefit of thousands of patients and care providers across the country and around the globe.
Research In The Frontlines
As an academic health system, our physicians are treating patients and their symptoms while our scientists are working alongside of them, seeking to understand the behaviors of the virus.
“As physician-scientists, we need to know and are studying how COVID-19 is impacting patients in ways that we’ve never seen before,” chairman Dr. Thomas G. McGinn and David J. Greene, who is a professor of medicine, senior vice president and deputy physician-in-chief at Northwell Health, said. “We’re tackling the spread, we are learning new treatments, predicting who benefits from different variations in clinical care, and ultimately, learning how to better manage similar outbreaks by utilizing the knowledge gained from our clinical experiences and the analysis of our large data sets.”
Less than one month after admitting Northwell’s first COVID-19 positive patient, Karina Davidson, Donald and Barbara Zucker professor in Health Outcomes and senior vice president of research at Northwell Health, was instrumental in creating, organizing and managing a cross-functional team of physicians, data analysts, artificial intelligence experts and healthcare leaders in developing tools to collect data from patients to help discover both immediate and long-term solutions. Northwell’s strength is in their ability to not only care for patients but to also study the events unfolding in front of us. And, Northwell’s research throughout this pandemic is helping us, and the world, develop data-driven strategies to prevent and treat COVID-19.
Using Data To
Predict What’s Next
Northwell has developed and are using new predictive models and software to support clinical decisions for patients. These tools assist clinicians who are having phone conversations with patients through telemedicine appointments; anticipating the course of the disease for inpatients who are being admitted to the hospital; and determining which patients in assisted living and other skilled nursing facilities, who are recovering from COVID-19, might be at risk of becoming sick again and returning to the hospital.
Through our clinical-prediction tools, Northwell is identifying who is at greatest risk, and what may be expected once a patient arrives at the emergency department and is admitted allowing clinicians and administration to make informed decisions and aiding in the forecasting of equipment, space and personnel needs at their hospitals.
“Northwell now has the largest COVID-19 database in the world,” McGinn and Green both said. “Our physicians and scientists are quickly utilizing this data to help care for and cure patients. While under extreme pressure to care for our patients, we feel a tremendous moral obligation to perform research that will help the rest of the country.”
Using Data To Inform
Future Outbreaks
Beyond the immediate benefits of harnessing our data to support the care of COVID-19 patients now, researchers are looking ahead to the impact this valuable information will have on the future of medical science.
Through data, blood samples and genetic sequencing, Northwell will be able to peel back, layer by layer, the novel coronavirus to understand what makes COVID-19 different from the thousands of other viruses in this world. Our knowledge will ultimately lead to new vaccines, better diagnostic tests, more effective treatment and a more informed understanding of how to prevent and minimize future outbreaks like this from ever happening again.
“This is a public health crisis and touches every aspect of our lives in physical, mental and emotional ways,” McGinn said. “Through our efforts to collect, study, analyze and utilize data, we are setting the standard of care for COVID-19. The knowledge we are gaining from our data now will be of tremendous benefit to other hospitals, health systems and patients across the country and throughout the world. It will also be of tremendous benefit as we address emergencies, natural disasters or viral outbreaks in the future.”
Driven To Discover
Scientific research is the driver to address our ability to care for patients with COVID-19 now, and support our ability to anticipate needs associated with other health crises or infectious diseases in the future. To fuel our response and abilities, we must continue to harness and understand the data.
Our work sits at the interface of discovery and clinical delivery, in an area that is critically important to the health of those in our care, and around the world, during this global pandemic. The progress Northwell is making would not be possible without philanthropic support. Our communities and especially supporters like you, must continue to provide the resources for physicians and scientists to rapidly address the challenges at hand, better understand COVID-19 and conduct research that will benefit our patients and others as the condition continues to spread.
To support this research visit www.support.northwell.edu/20/donation-forms/covid-19-research-emergency-fund. For more information, visit www.give.northwell.edu. Get the facts on coronavirus and Northwell Health’s response—as well as helpful articles from our experts at www.northwell.edu/coronavirus-covid-19.
—The author Amy Pilott is a senior development writer with Northwell Health
