COVID-19 Seropositivity and Asymptomatic Rates in Healthcare Workers at Beaumont

Hans Keil, MBA, SVP & CIO, and Matthew Sims, MD, PhD, Director of Infectious Disease Research, Beaumont Health.  Beaumont Health conducted a major study of over 20,000 employees during the height of last spring’s COVID-19 surge, leveraging their IT and Lab teams, to understand the risk of exposure for frontline healthcare workers.  Determining infection rate can be difficult due to the practical limits on testing and the high rate of asymptomatic individuals.  Through the detection of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 across the health system employee population, as well as analysis of electronic health record and self-reported data, prior exposure to the virus could be determined and mitigation strategies, such as isolation, masks, and other protective equipment, better developed. The results of this study, funded by Beaumont Health and major donors of the Beaumont Health Foundation, and published in November in Oxford University Press’ Clinical Infectious Diseases, showed seropositivity and symptomatic rates varies by factors such as job function and masking.  Hear the story behind the study, as well as the importance of the results for health systems. | Published paper: https://lnkd.in/eAXy6Z8