The Healthcare Worker Exposure Response & Outcomes (HERO) Registry launched this week, inviting U.S. healthcare workers, including those from Temple University Health System, to share clinical and life experiences in order to understand the perspectives and problems faced by those on the COVID-19 pandemic front lines.
The registry will unite America’s healthcare workers into a community to facilitate rapid-cycle research, including a large study of hydroxychloroquine’s effectiveness in preventing coronavirus infections in healthcare workers. The HERO research program leverages PCORnet®, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network, and is funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).
The HERO Registry is asking hundreds of thousands of healthcare professionals to participate, including nurses, therapists, physicians, emergency responders, food service workers, environmental services workers, interpreters, and transporters – anyone who works in a setting where people receive health care. The goals of the registry are to engage healthcare workers in a research community, understand their experiences and interests through ongoing surveys, and track critical health outcomes associated with caring for patients with COVID-19, such as stress and burnout.
The HERO Registry will help speed clinical studies that address unmet needs for healthcare workers. Temple University Health System has been selected to participate in the HERO-HCQ, a randomized clinical trial of approximately 15,000 HERO Registry participants that will evaluate whether hydroxychloroquine (brand name Plaquenil®) is better than placebo in preventing COVID-19 infection. Temple is participating in HERO-HCQ through the PaTH Network, one of the networks that comprises PCORnet. Temple has been a PaTH site since 2014 under the direction of Principal PaTH Investigator Anuradha Paranjape, MD, MPH, FACP, Professor of Medicine, Professor of Clinical Sciences and Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs in the Department of Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (LKSOM).
Under the direction of Dr. Nina Gentile, Professor of Emergency Medicine at LKSOM; Dr. Paranjape; and Dr. Gustavo Adolfo Fernandez Romero, Assistant Professor of Clinical Thoracic Medicine and Surgery at LKSOM, Temple’s departments of Emergency Medicine, Medicine and Thoracic Medicine and Surgery will serve as Temple’s HERO-HCQ study site.
“We’re calling on Temple University Health System healthcare workers to share their perspectives so that we can understand and provide answers to the problems they face in real time – and over time,” said Dr. Paranjape. “We have long been part of PCORnet through the PaTH Network and our mission is to address questions and concerns that matter most to the communities we serve in order to make more informed health decisions. COVID-19 is the number one issue facing our country and the world as a whole right now and we look forward to doing our part through the HERO Registry to help keep our front line healthcare workers safe.”
There is no cost to enroll in the HERO Registry and registration takes only a few minutes. Healthcare workers can participate as much or as little as they like in surveys and other opportunities. The registry will follow a protocol developed by the DCRI and data guidelines to keep healthcare worker information secure.
To learn more about the HERO Registry, visit https://heroesresearch.org.