Note: this editorial was published in the January 12, 2021 edition of the Toledo Blade.
The University of Toledo Medical Center is one of 40 hospitals joining the federal government’s Big Effect study to determine which treatments work best to treat the coronavirus. It’s just the latest evidence of the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital’s value, not only for patients in Toledo, but for the broader community.
Since the virus emerged early last year, scientists and health-care professionals have developed treatments and shared their discoveries with each other. Now, the National Institutes of Health is launching a national study to identify which coronavirus treatments are most effective and deserve more attention in clinical trials.
The study will look to weed out ineffective treatments and expedite therapeutics that show significant benefits to patients struggling with the virus by testing hospitalized adults who need oxygen or mechanical ventilation and consent to participation.
UTMC will seek to have at least 30 patients participate in total, and has 10 enrolled already. Those who enroll in the trial will be treated with two drugs — remdesivir, a proven benefit to treating coronavirus infections, and either risankizumab or lenzilumab, two monoclonal antibodies being investigated as potential treatments for the virus.
After the initial portion of the trial, UTMC will begin a second phase using a placebo-controlled trial that looks to examine the safety and efficacy of using each of the two monoclonal antibodies paired with remdesivir, versus remdesivir alone.
Joining the study is just UTMC’s way of doing its part for the worldwide fight against coronavirus, according to Dr. Michael Ellis, an infectious disease expert, who is the chief medical officer at UTMC.
Not only is participating in the Big Effect research a way for a regional hospital to contribute to the greater good during a crisis, it shows that UTMC is a vital institution to our community.
Faced with possible sale or even closure a little less than a year ago, UTMC is showing signs of new life. University of Toledo officials announced in December the hospital had surpassed revenue expectations for the second half of 2020 and a new partnership with the Toledo Clinic offers signs of hope.
That UTMC has a place in a national study of coronavirus treatments is one more piece of evidence that Toledo still needs UTMC and in return UTMC needs Toledo’s support.