Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1363384
Q A As interim senior associate dean for research, Bellur S. Prabhakar, MSc, PhD, oversees the broad scope of research efforts at the College of Medicine. Prabhakar told us about what he, his team and researchers across the COM's campuses statewide have accomplished during the past year. How did you and others pivot to handle research operations once COVID-19 hit? We were very nimble, and we were totally responsive to whatever needed to be done, given how rapidly this crisis appeared on the scene. It was a fascinating realignment of our research priorities from other killers such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. We pulled back on those and ramped up COVID-19-related activities. But we never stopped any long-term experiments because that could have had detrimental effects on our discoveries. We didn't want to lose six or nine months' worth of work. What sort of coordination did this involve? We had to coordinate our activities with the vice chancellor for research and with the vice chancellor for administration because we had to have controlled access to these buildings. The common facilities had to be constantly decontaminated, particularly bathrooms and conference rooms and things of that nature. The environmental and occupational health sciences department had to approve many of the activities. And all of those regulated activities had to be coordinated with the Illinois Department of Public Health. It was quite a remarkable realignment. How did you pull back in the spring based on the state mandate and then ramp up again? We had to shut down research operations. Once cases started declining, we began to reboot the research program in a phased manner. Over a three-week period, we enabled most of the investigators to get back on their feet. The most important thing was to communicate with our faculty and alert them to the do's and don'ts in these pandemic conditions about how to use shared equipment, and to distribute PPE like masks, gloves and so forth. We conducted town hall meetings with the dean and created a Q& A on the medical school website, which was constantly updated. What other steps were involved? We had to make sure that department administrators were aware of and able to monitor what was going on. We put up signage and markers to maintain 6-foot distance and established elevator policies. Access was completely controlled. As soon as you swiped your card, we knew somebody was in the building and you were sent a health survey automatically. Within 30 minutes, if you didn't take the health survey, you would get a reminder, and that reminder would be seen by the department administrator. Our compliance has been 100%. What are you most proud of overall? I'm most proud of our ability to respond to the needs of the hour: administratively, grants-wise, supplies-wise, research activity-wise, the care provided, the various volunteer activities, saliva testing, nasal swab testing, you name it. I am very, very proud of how quickly people were able to pick up whatever they needed to pick up, to make sure we responded. From simple adherence to guidelines up to caring for patients in the ICU at significant personal risk, it was absolutely remarkable. I'm proud of the degree of cooperation, understanding, compassion and resilience. Look at the level of coordination we had to pull off, with the state and the city providing us general guidelines, which were not always fully aligned, and the university providing us instructions related to research that were campus specific. Many people saw this as an opportunity to contribute, and they did. 5 QUESTIONS 1 2 3 4 5 P H O T O : D I A N E S M U T N Y 32 | Spring 2021