University Hospitals to study vaccine effectiveness for CDC

CLEVELAND, Ohio - University Hospitals is taking on the honor of studying vaccine effectiveness for the CDC.

It’s a study that could protect you and your family from getting sick.

The assignment is a five-year job only seven health systems were chosen to participate in and the findings could be game-changing.

“It helps us plan for next year’s vaccine or for the flu for example, or Covid, we don’t know if we’ll have that annually,” said Dr. Elie Saade, Medical Director of University Hospital’s infection control. “So it helps us plan what type of vaccine will be used next year.”

University Hospitals will measure how effective the flu vaccine and covid-19 vaccines are in the real world. That means using real data, not controlled environments.

“In the real world, people may get the vaccine, may get one dose, may get two-dose, may get it 3 or 4 or 5 weeks apart, may not be getting other boosters, maybe mixing them, so we’ll be able to tell that way in the real world,” said Dr. Saade. “We’ll also be able to tell which vaccine is really working.”

They’ll also be able to tell what’s not working and which groups aren’t protected. With that information, doctors will be able to detect if you and your family are vulnerable and what they can do to help treat you.

“If there’s certain groups such as geographic areas, certain ages maybe, that will allow us to design interventions where we can get vaccines and other precautions and other measures to prevent infections in this population,” said Dr. Saade.

The project allows UH to pave the future for vaccines right here at home, while holding true to its mission to heal, teach, and discover.

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