Adrian Hernandez, MD, MHS, DCRI’s executive director, spoke to Zubin Damania, MD, on his internet show that reaches millions of healthcare professionals and other viewers each week.
The recent retractions of two papers in The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine underscore the challenges that can be associated with working too quickly in the setting of a pandemic, said DCRI Executive Director Adrian Hernandez, MD, MHS, in a recent appearance on ZDoggMD.
ZDoggMD is a weekly online show hosted by Dr. Zubin Damania. The show reaches an audience of tens of millions of viewers, many of them healthcare professionals. Hernandez was invited to discuss the same-day retractions of two studies that used a dataset from a company called Surgisphere. Questions about the database and its legitimacy surfaced after both studies were published, and Hernandez was one of the signees of open letters to both publications.
Retractions of COVID-19 Studies
Hernandez discussed the retractions at 1:38.
“While it’s incredible something like that could happen, it shows the challenges of trying to address big data and real-world data in the setting of a pandemic,” he said. “People are really trying to get answers, and it turns out that [the database] they were using no one could really understand or validate.”
A Need for Better Science
At 10:05, Hernandez speaks to the current climate surrounding COVID-19 and the pressing need for scientific answers—and how that urgency can lead to mistakes.
“Normally, science is iterative, slow, and deliberative,” he said. “In the setting of a pandemic where people are really trying to grasp at any answer, whether it’s right or partially right or maybe completely wrong, this is what can happen.”
“We need to change that,” he continued. “We can still do things fast, but we can also make sure to be attentive to quality.”
HERO Research Program
One of the ways that Hernandez is trying to advance science in the COVID-19 pandemic is through the HERO research program, for which he is principal investigator.
At 18:00, he discusses the HERO Registry, which any healthcare worker can join to help researchers understand how the pandemic is impacting people in a wide range of roles within the healthcare system.
“We’re aiming to create a community of healthcare workers across the U.S. to better understand their needs,” Hernandez said. “What are your stress points? What’s going on so we can try to make sure that your individual voice is amplified?”
People who enroll in the HERO Registry may also have the opportunity to participate in clinical trials such as HERO-HCQ, which aims to determine whether hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) can be used to prevent COVID-19 infection in healthcare workers.
At 20:40, Damania thanked Hernandez for sharing this research opportunity with his audience. “What matters most is that this audience can be a part of something…to actually be a part of the solution and feel empowered.”
“We’re lending our voice to something that will actually change practice, not just for us on the front lines but for everybody in the world,” Damania continued. “I can’t think of a stronger pitch for people who have already dedicated their lives to helping others.”