As COVID-19 continues to ravage the country and strain our health systems, the need for a collaborative approach to clinical research that can be conducted at an accelerated pace has never been greater. Opportunities abound: Some sponsors have begun offering COVID-19-focused supplements to existing awards. Individual researchers or teams may discover that they have unique opportunities to gather data during this time.

OneFlorida’s extensive statewide network of clinical partners and its rich data repository of electronic health records is a fantastic resource. We’re currently working with PCORnet to develop a COVID-19 data subset. We will post an update on the OneFlorida website when this data becomes available.

To keep your rapid response COVID-19 research moving in lock-step with the fast pace of the pandemic, we have streamlined some of our administrative processes:

• For researchers with COVID-19-related study ideas, please complete a research application and contact the OneFlorida operations team at  OneFloridaOperations@health.ufl.edu. Projects will be triaged and investigators will be asked to submit a 1-page project summary if appropriate.
• For fast-breaking COVID-19 projects, our COVID-19 Ancillary Review Committee is prepared to review project summaries within a matter of days.

Our aim is to efficiently facilitate COVID-19 research while balancing the capacity of our network and partner sites.