ACHA Publication: Lessons from the PROTECT-CH COVID-19 platform trial in care homes

This paper describes lessons from a high-profile national care home trial platform which ACHA Professor Adam Gordon Co-led during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The PROTECT-CH study was designed to randomise patients with COVID-19 to preventative therapies in the event of an outbreak to work out how best to prevent spread of the disease.  It commenced in January 2021 and was ready to recruit by April 2021.  The study was, however, unable to proceed due to the overwhelming success of vaccination for COVID-19 in the early part of 2021, which meant that COVID-19 rates dropped to a level where the study was not feasible.  This was a happy outcome!

Nevertheless, the study yielded important results about the lack of readiness of the care home sector for future large platform studies, particularly in the pressured environment of epidemics or pandemics.  This paper shares these important lessons to guide future policy and development around research in the sector.  You can read it in full here.