GCSOM student shares research from Center of Excellence externship

There is preliminary evidence of racial, health and economic disparities in the population infected by and dying from COVID-19. This is the finding of a paper co-authored by Oluwaseyi Olulana, MBS '19, an incoming member of GCSOM's MD Class of 2024.

 

Oluwaseyi is a member of the research team at the Geisinger Neuroscience Institute Decode Lab in Danville, where she worked as a research extern during her gap year. This externship is funded by the GCSOM’s Center of Excellence HRSA grant under the leadership of Ida Castro, JD. At this externship, she worked with the research team to input data for the IMAGENE research study, contribute to the writing of research papers to be published on topics such as disparity and stroke, and further the understanding of stroke assessment within the Geisinger Health System under the mentorship of Ramin Zand, MD.

 

She said the most important finding of the study is that risk factors for infection and mortality from COVID-19 differ. The paper states, “Our analysis shows that counties with more diverse demographics, higher population, education, income levels, and lower disability rates were at a higher risk of COVID-19 infection. However, counties with higher disability and poverty rates had a higher death rate. African Americans were more vulnerable to COVID-19 than other ethnic groups. Moreover, data on mobility changes corroborate the impact of social distancing.”

 

MedRxiv (pronounced "med-archive") is a free online archive and distribution server for manuscripts in the medical, clinical, and related health sciences. It was founded by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), a not-for-profit research and educational institution, Yale University, and BMJ, a global healthcare knowledge provider.

 

To view the pre-print article, click here. This paper is currently under peer-review.

 

For information on The Decode Laboratory, click here.