Co-Immunity Project: Testing Healthcare Workers for COVID-19

Baptist Health joins collaboration in studying COVID-19 infection among healthcare workers.

What is the Co-Immunity Project?

The Co-Immunity Project is a collaboration which includes the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and the Center for Predictive Medicine at the University of Louisville, the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council (LHCC), the Commonwealth of Kentucky and Louisville Metro Government centered around a study conducted by the University of Louisville to discover the status of COVID-19 infection among healthcare workers at Baptist Health, Norton Healthcare, and University of Louisville Health, and their antibody immunity level.

What is the purpose of the Study?

The purpose of this study is to monitor health care workers to better understand the prevalence of either current or past COVID-19 infection. For those who test positive to either a current infection or a past cleared infection, we will study the body’s immune response to the virus.

Who can Participate?

Eligibility for the study is limited to current healthcare workers at Baptist Health, Norton Healthcare and UL Health in Louisville and surrounding areas, who are involved in direct patient care. This could include therapists, nurses, nurse practitioners, phlebotomist, physicians, and technicians.

What is Involved?

To minimize exposure risk, most parts of this study will take place either electronically or with self-collection of specimens. We will look at both antigens with PCR, which requires a nasal swab, and antibodies in your blood which will be collected by a finger stick. To better understand who is affected by COVID we will ask some questions about you and your health history as well. Specimens will be collected at centralized drop off locations. More details will be provided once the study begins enrollment.

What you will learn:

We will provide you the results of both your antigen test and your antibody test. Your antigen results will be provided in around 48 hours and will let you know if you have an active infection with no symptoms. This is important as many cases of COVID-19 are thought to spread through carriers with no symptoms. We will also return your antibody status in around 2 weeks. This lets you know if you have had a COVID-19 infection at some point and have developed an immune response.

If our study detection methods find that you were previously infected with COVID-19, but have now satisfactorily recovered, you will be provided information about potential plasma donation to assist others in whom current treatment of COVID-19 has been ineffective.

If you have an active COVID-19 infection, there may be multiple follow-up visits requested to better understand the body’s immune response.

Timeframe and Contact information:

We plan to start the study in early May. Please check this page again, when enrollment begins this page will be updated to include study details and information on how to participate. If you are interested in being contacted when the study begins with more detailed information, please fill out this form with your name and email address.

I am not currently eligible, but would like to be considered if the study is Expanded:

If you are not eligible (per the criteria posted under the Who can Participate section above), but would like to be considered if the study expands, please fill out this form with your name and email address.