NEW ORLEANS – Ochsner Health announced its participation in an acute respiratory illness study sponsored by Pfizer Inc. The study is seeking to enroll healthy adult volunteers ages 18 and above who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine and do not plan to receive one during the six- to eight-week study. The study will enroll up to 6,250 participants from across the United States.
The AcRIS study leverages web-based participant recruitment, remote electronic consent, and symptom and sample collection via a secure mobile application that is downloaded onto a participant’s cell phone. It will collect participant data to attempt to build a voice and symptom algorithm(s) for the potential detection and monitoring of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, as well as other respiratory diseases. Beyond the immediate application of such an algorithm to COVID-19, analyzing the relationships between acute respiratory symptoms and voice features in this study could lead to the development of an algorithm or tool to detect and monitor other viral respiratory diseases, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
“By digitizing the study participant journey, we hope to eliminate barriers for trial participation and recruitment, ultimately creating a more equitable platform for participants to contribute to research and clinical studies that is not limited by geographical barriers. Ochsner Health has a rich history of developing and leveraging technology aimed at helping patients manage chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension. It is a natural evolution to team up with Pfizer to model how technology can play a key role in reimagining how researchers approach a study, potentially forging a new path for the next generation of clinical studies, including interventional trials,” said Dr. Leonardo Seoane, Ochsner Health senior vice president and chief academic officer. Visit the study website to learn more.
