As the novel coronavirus emerged and the COVID-19 pandemic ensued, the Eureka research team recognized an exciting new way to have an impact on the pandemic: host a new study allowing participants around the world to contribute to COVID-19 research. Led by Drs. Jeffrey Olgin, Gregory Marcus, and Mark Pletcher, COVID-19 Citizen Science (CCS) took a concerted effort from the Eureka team that involved long hours, late nights, and weekend work. The rapid labor and the unbridled enthusiasm from the team allowed CCS to “go-live” faster than any other Eureka study at that time.
CCS officially launched on March 26, 2020 and was one of the first COVID-19 research studies open to adults across the globe using mobile phones. Since the launch of the study, more than 38,000 participants have joined with the goal of logging daily symptoms and periodically telling us about other changes in their life, new features have been added such as our interactive symptom map, and a multitude of partner sites and collaborative investigators have joined in our efforts. CCS is truly a unique study and one that is so crucial to this time in history. We continue to gain invaluable knowledge from our Citizen Scientists that will help to lessen the health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
