Statewide Registry to Track Spread of COVID
Provost Marie Lynn Miranda (photo courtesy of the University of Notre Dame)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe provost at the University of Notre Dame is spearheading a research study that aims to provide real-time information on the spread of COVID-19. Dr. Marie Lynn Miranda, who is also the director of the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative, is leading the Indiana COVID-19 Registry efforts. Miranda says the public health registry is meant to help local communities, health departments, and state agencies understand the spread of COVID-19 across the state, as well as Hoosiers’ concerns, attitudes regarding vaccination and access to testing and vaccination.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Dr. Miranda said the registry is also meant to help uncover broader impacts.
“The purpose of the registry is to understand what are people’s concerns, what are the affects of the pandemic, economic impacts, mental health impacts, all of that in one place so that you have a more systematic and analytical way of understanding the pandemic and the impacts on our communities here in Indiana,” Miranda explained.
Miranda says the registry also allows people to be tracked over time. Users are sent follow-up surveys to gather updates and better understand the impacts through the course of time.
“I really hope that people will join the registry and that’s whether they’ve had COVID or not,” said Miranda. “We actually need people who’ve had COVID and people who’ve not had COVID to join the registry. The more people who join, the bigger impact the registry can have.”
Miranda believes the overall impact of the registry is that it will provide the basis for decision-making regarding public health protocols and the location of testing and vaccination centers.
“It provides us with the evidence base that we need to understand what kinds of education campaigns we need to implement in different places because of people’s attitudes towards the pandemic, the public health protocols, and vaccination,” says Miranda. “It also helps us plan, what are the interventions we’re going to need as we come, as a state, out of the pandemic. If we better understand the economic impacts, the mental health impacts, the physical health impacts, we will be in a better position to create a better future for Hoosiers across the state.”
You can connect to the registry by clicking here.
Miranda discusses the purpose of the COVID-19 registry and how its designed to help shape public health protocols.