Dr. Kline Using Research Network to Find Effective COVID-19 Treatments

Dr. Kline has served the last 25 years as an infectious disease physician, 23 years as a hospital epidemiologist and medical director for Infection Prevention at the M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center (UMMC) and 13 years as UMMC’s lead physician for antimicrobial stewardship.

The Ebola outbreak in 2014 exposed a major weakness—institutions sought out their own answers for the best treatment for the virus instead of working collaboratively. At that time, a group of medical institutions tapped Dr. Kline to help develop one of 10 biocontainment units across the country that now specialize in the treatment of Ebola. In 2016, the group formally launched as NETEC (National Ebola Training and Education Center).

In came COVID-19, and NETEC had a system in place. They received support from the National Institutes of Health to study the use of remdesivir in the treatment of COVID-19, and they asked SPRN to serve as recruiting centers. Within days, the U of M and Dr. Kline soon became the face of one the largest clinical trials to find an answer.

Read More