National Institutes of Health RADx-UP Coordination and Data Collection Center (CDCC)

Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation responded by identifying effective strategies to improve access to COVID-19 testing as a public health priority. AIR is part of the team supporting the RADx®-UP Coordination and Data Collection Center (CDCC) for the National Institutes of Health. The overarching goal of the RADx-UP initiative was to develop community-engaged projects across the United States to expand access to COVID-19 testing, with a focus on communities most affected by the pandemic.

The CDCC involves experts in clinical trial management, community engagement, data science, and clinical research informatics working together to create a community-focused coordination and data collection center for RADx-UP grantees—more than 130 research partnerships between universities and community-based organizations across the country. AIR’s role in the CDCC was to:

• Provide data science support by automating multiple processes via Azure logic app, and performing extract, transform and load of project metadata and national COVID-19 testing and vaccination data;
• Chair working groups of RADx-UP grantees collaboratively identifying and developing solutions to support reductions in COVID-19;
• Facilitate sessions at the biannual Evidence Academy, which uses an engaged conference approach to enable researchers and community and governmental leaders to share experiences, ideas, and recommendations to improve access to COVID-19 testing; and
• Provide qualitative research support to inform the CDCC's community engagement strategies.

Notable AIR work produced include:

• Collaborating with the CDCC Group Model Building team to create visual representations and written explanations of the working group's insights into community processes and factors that help or hurt improved access to COVID-19 testing.
• Publishing an American Journal of Public Health article that details how community-engaged research through RADx-UP improved access to COVID19 testing and vaccination in communities most affected by the pandemic.
• Partnering with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and ACON Laboratories to develop and release how-to test demonstration videos in English and Spanish to encourage use and trust in COVID-19 tests.
• Using human-centered design to facilitate optimal data collection from RADx-UP grantees’ COVID-19 interventions and finalize and publish a data visualization user guide to help program data reach a variety of stakeholders, including policymakers and community-based organizations.