Can COVID Impact Heart Health? Duke Teams With Deloitte to Test Athletes | Deloitte US has been saved
By Christopher Zant, principal, Deloitte Consulting, LLP
In late August, as many collegiate athletes were wrapping up summer vacations and dusting off their sports equipment, I was testing my cycling skills…climbing mountains. Thousands of us peddled 110 miles through three mountain passes—past jaw-dropping Rocky Mountain panoramas and up some ridiculously steep roads—from Evergreen, Colorado to Vail. At age 50, it takes months of training to prepare for such a ride. My muscles don’t recover nearly as quickly as they did when I was in college…and I’m much more cognizant of my heart health than I was 30 years ago (and not just because this ride is named the Triple Bypass).
In the weeks before the ride, my friends and I stayed away from restaurants and groups of people. Even though we are all vaccinated, we didn’t want to risk being exposed to COVID-19. People who have been infected by the virus are nearly 16 times more likely to develop myocarditis than people who haven’t been infected, according to an August 31 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).1 Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle often associated with viral infections. While this condition is rare (even for people who have been infected with COVID-19) little is known about its prevalence among athletes who have been infected by the virus.
Duke wants to capture the hearts of 500 athletes
As student athletes return to their classes (and to their sports), some are taking part in a virtual clinical trial being conducted by the Duke Heart Center. The Duke Hearts of Athletes Study is recruiting 500 NCAA collegiate athletes, professional athletes, and Olympic athletes who have and have not been infected by COVID-19. The study will also evaluate heart health among vaccinated and non-vaccinated athletes. The CDC has reported a higher-than-expected number of cases of myocarditis and pericarditis in adolescents and young adults (primarily males) who have received the vaccine.
We know that student athletes tend to be busy with classes, practices, events, and games. Rather than requiring them to make regular visits to a medical facility, the Duke study will be conducted virtually. This approach, which does not require the athlete to travel or be onsite, is expected to increase patient engagement and adherence, build a geographically dispersed and diverse pool of study participants, and allow investigators to conduct faster, more informed analyses.
Researchers hope to learn how the virus triggers Myocarditis. At this point, we don’t know exactly how or why COVID-19 sometimes causes inflammation to the heart muscle, and there is limited understanding of the damage the virus can cause to the heart. The study will also try to determine how long young athletes should wait before returning to intense physical activity after a COVID-19 infection.
Our Cloud-based platform enables Duke’s virtual study
Prior to the pandemic, Duke University researchers set out to understand how high-level athletic activities affected the heart. The study later shifted its focus to COVID-19. The Duke Hearts of Athletes study provides a perfect opportunity to leverage Deloitte’s ConvergeHEALTH MyPath platform. The idea was to conduct a completely virtual and decentralized clinical trial, meaning that all data is being collected and stored remotely. MyPath is being used to enable e-consent, survey completion, long-term tracking of COVID symptoms and adherence, and athletes’ return to activity.
For 30 consecutive days, participants will use a smartphone-enabled digital app to complete a brief survey about their health and any COVID-19 symptoms. They might also be asked to provide cardiac images for review. Participants who have an abnormal finding on an electrocardiogram, troponin levels, and/or echocardiogram, will likely be asked to undergo a Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) procedure. Participants can allow their de-identified cardiac images to be sent to the Duke Heart Center for a blinded analysis. The app also provides participants with access to clinically verified information about COVID-19 and the clinical trial. We know that students probably don’t have time to sift through the CDC’s website to learn about the virus, and we hope this information helps to keep them engaged throughout the trial.
Traditional clinical trials often require participants to fill out paper forms, complete a medical diary, and make regular trips to a medical facility for tests. That can be a tremendous burden on the participant. We expect this decentralized clinical-trial approach will allow for a more diverse population of potential participants. The study isn’t tied to academic hubs or cities, and it isn’t geographically bounded, which means we have a much broader population from which to draw. Moreover, the platform’s investigator portal is designed to decrease the time investigators spend enrolling patients and tracking their adherence to the study’s protocols.
There is nothing more important than our health, and I hope this study can help us learn more about the affect COVID-19 has on the hearts of athletes. Without my health, and a strong heart, I never could have completed such a grueling bike ride. During my tour through the Rockies, I concluded that life is a series of winding roads and arduous climbs…but the view can be pretty spectacular!
1. Association between COVID-19 and myocarditis using hospital-based administrative data, August 31, 2021
