Public Health Initiatives - COVID-19 Pandemic & Other Opportunities

UPDATED 4/30/2020: We have received several requests for resident involvement in public health initiatives both having to do with the pandemic and not. Some of them are time sensitive and so need volunteers now. For some of you, your rotations have been impacted by the pandemic and as such you may find yourself with time to fill. If you want to participate in one of these projects/opportunities, we can incorporate it into your upcoming rotation(s).

If you have questions about the opportunities, please email Dr Rich and she will connect you with our contact and help get your questions answered. The global health faculty are also great resources for identifying opportunities.

Option 1: Community Education — for Spanish-speakers only. 

  • Dr O’dea has been giving weekly interviews on a spanish-speaking radio station in town, to ensure the Latinx community has accurate information about the pandemic. If you’d like to give her break and do an interview, please email Dr O'dea directly. You must be fluent in Spanish as the interview is conducted entirely in Spanish.

Option 2: Active TB case index in partnership w University Health Services (UHS)

  • Time sensitive - need to start Monday, May 4. 

  • a 6-16 week project for tuberculosis (TB) contact investigation

  • Working in teams, including overseeing UC medical students in addition to making own phone calls (ultimately, reporting to UHS faculty)

  • Activities to include: (no direct, in-person pt care or supervision)

    • Establishing an EPIC "Patient list” database of contacts (>450 possible contacts)

    • Inviting UC student contacts through UC/EPIC MyChart to complete a TB Screening questionnaire

    • Review and follow up on responses  received 

    • Assist with placing orders for Quantiferon Gold serum TB testing and/or Chest Xrays

    • Phone contact with UCC who have not accessed their UCMyChart for on phone guidance to recruit them into MyChart for tracing purposes or other phone / contact  

    • Making decisions with Resident/ Faculty on symptomatic or abnormal test results

    • "Rounding" (virtually) weekly with the Faculty for data collections and teaching opportunities either through WebEx or Microsoft Teams.

  • Time commitment: 2-3 hrs per week, can be divided up in any way you want (e.g 15 min increments or 1 x 3 hr block)

  • Timeline: Would like to be done by June 30th.

  • Email Dr Rich if you are interested

Option 3: COVID-19 tracking in partnership with UHS

  • Tracking cases for students (not employees)

  • Reporting directly UHS

  • Pending approval from COM re LCME guideline compliance

  • Email Dr Rich if you are interested

Option 4: COVID-19 epidemiology with Cincinnati Health Department

  • this project is focused on data entry: reviewing PUI forms and entering into database

  • Asynchronous and no in-person patient care

  • Email Dr Rich and she will connect you with Dr Amin

Option 5: Join the Ohio Department of Health COVID-19 Public Health Assist team

  • See this document for full (though still pretty limited) details

  • All duties performed virtually

  • Duties may include: patient follow up & contact tracing; triage and response to community-based calls/inquiries regarding COVID-19; communication and messaging for the community and media; social media support.

  • Some details are flexible so would need to explore what the Cincinnati Public Health Assist team(s) is doing before committing

  • Email Dr Rich prior to completing sign up form