Launch Plan
Progress Starts here.
An exceptional trial demands an exceptional response.
The START Coalition has formed a robust panel of experts—physicians, philanthropists, entrepreneurial powerhouses, organizations, and individuals spanning a wide range of education, research, and commercial operations. We have partnered with Harvard Medical, Stanford Medicine, Purdue University Research Foundation, OU Medicine, and The University of Alabama to deploy, evaluate and share a suite of pragmatic interventions, creating safe communities, underpinned by data-directed implementation.
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Implementation
Stop the virus. Protect the communities. Start the work. Open the campuses
Over the course of six months, once full resources are in-hand, The START Coalition will run two 10-week Pilot Programs in five geo-diverse regions. These Coalition Pilot Programs are designed to leverage lessons learned from past pandemics—employing systematic evaluations, wide-spread contact tracing, real-time data assessment, and the application of emerging capabilities, organizations, and insights.
Smart Testing: Defining the role of antibody testing
- Define antibodies that are protective against the virus
- How long do protective antibodies last?
- Scale up testing to measure these antibodies
Contact Tracing & Implementation
- State of the art methods of data collection
- Use App-based tools with data privacy concerns addressed
- Take advantage of implementation expertise from other pandemics –e.g., TB, HIV, Zika and Ebola
Germicidal Light Disinfection & Environmental Testing
- Focus on occupant safety and sustainability of germicidal light
- Utilizing experience from the world’s leading experts in infection control and germicidal light efficacy and safety
- Define germicidal light and environmental best practices for air and surface disinfection in workplaces, retail stores and public indoor spaces
Data Assessments & “What-if” Projections
- Answers to the questions regarding how to shape the Economic Recovery Curve
- How effective are the interventions –from a health perspective?
- What are the implications of decisions made on business sectors, workforce, skill=-sets and healthcare capacity?)
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OUTPUT
What We’ll Know By Late Phase
- How to optimize antibody testing and determining what may offer protection
- If and how much BCG vaccination can confer protection and/or reduce severity and whether it should be used more widely
- The role/effectiveness of germicidal light disinfection as one part of creating safe public spaces (along with PPE, targeted testing, and the use of interventions like BCG)
- Predictive insights into the economic implications on business sectors, workforce and healthcare capacity as a result of specific interventions
- Perspectives into the acceptance/effectiveness of digital-driven contact trading common-design principles for scale
Sharing Knowledge Between Sites
Pilot Locations
Each community features a distinct socio-economic profile while facing a shared challenge/imperative: stop the virus and start the work. These communities are uniquely qualified to learn from each other with speed and scale.
Alabama: Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and the surrounding 6 counties
- Focus industry: Light manufacturing and agriculture
- Demographics: 23-34% total population in poverty as high as 81% racial and ethnic minority status (median 42%); Rural and diverse communities, large pop. African American
California: Imperial County / Baja
- Focus industry: major agricultural hub
- Demographics: majority Latinx population, with a number of people traversing the US – Mexican border daily (raising its own complex set of issues).
Massachusetts, Cambridge:
- Focus: Biotech and universities
- Demographics: program will focus on urban cluster with high infection rates
Oklahoma City and an arch of the Plains States
- Focus industry: oil and gas
- Demographics: Kansas, Arkansas, Northern Texas – population including Native Americans.
Purdue, Alabama & Oklahoma Universities
- Focus industry: “opening up” universities safely, food production
- Demographics: population of 55,000 (Purdue), 22,000 (Oklahoma University and Oklahoma Medical Sciences), and 38,500 (Alabama)
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RESULTS
How will we determine our impact?
We will know our epidemic. Our impact is defined through understanding. While disease dynamics may seem similar, each city is unique. Our pilot communities will identify the best practice in serving the high-risk areas and informing residents or potential visitors on appropriate precautions.
A collaborative community. Collaborative efforts will determine the success of a community. Business and local government will cooperate, actively improving safety in the buildings and meeting places identified as hotspots.
Active Innovation Adoption. A successful ecosystem will quickly adopt preventive, curative, and diagnostic breakthroughs, implementing updated changes within the framework of a mobile/digital healthcare delivery model.
