Healthcare workers participate in COVID-19 vaccine research to help understand long-term impact

HERO-TOGETHER, a new research study, will gain insights on how COVID-19 vaccination can help keep communities healthy and free of the virus.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a once-in-a-generation challenge that healthcare heroes everywhere have worked together to face. From working on the front lines to working behind the scenes, people in health care and public service have joined together with unprecedented focus to fight COVID-19.

Many of these healthcare heroes will continue to lead the way by being amongst the first to receive COVID-19 vaccines, recently approved through emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

HERO-TOGETHER, leverages the existing HERO Registry, a nationwide community of more than 17,000 healthcare workers who signed up to help researchers better understand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers.

HERO-TOGETHER will include approximately 20,000 healthcare workers who receive a COVID-19 vaccine to help gain a better understanding of how people do after vaccination over time. Participants will be asked to answer surveys over the next two years about their health and any unexpected medical care they may receive.

"This is an opportunity to generate real-world evidence from hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers in a very short time period," says Mike Kappelman, MD, Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine and Co-Director of the Community and Stakeholder Engagement Program at NC TraCS. "This study could potentially address a number of important research questions that remain despite the rigorous Phase III trials that have already been conducted."

Anyone who is 18 or older and works in a healthcare setting is eligible to join the HERO Registry. Those who receive a vaccine for COVID-19 can self-enroll in HERO-TOGETHER through the HERO Registry participant portal within 60 days of receiving a vaccine.