ProHealth Care enrolls patients in nationwide clinical trial designed to treat COVID-19 patients with blood plasma

ProHealth Care is enrolling coronavirus patients in a new clinical trial designed to study the efficacy of treating COVID-19 using blood plasma donated by patients who have recovered from severe cases of the disease.

The study, “Expanded Access to Convalescent Plasma for the Treatment of Patients with COVID-19,” is part of a nationwide effort that seeks to determine whether antibodies from blood plasma can help shorten the length or severity of the illness in hospitalized patients.

This investigational treatment has been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration as an emergency investigational new drug, and ProHealth Waukesha Memorial Hospital and ProHealth Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital are among nearly 2,100 sites enrolling COVID-19 patients in the trial.

The trial is being led by Mayo Clinic and is aligned with the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project that includes plasma donations in 12 states. More than 5,900 patients are already enrolled in the study.

“ProHealth Care’s participation in the study enables eligible patients receiving care for COVID-19 in our hospitals to be treated with plasma donated by previous COVID-19 patients,” said Art Coffey, MD, chief physician operations officer. “Early study results indicate that COVID-19 patients may do better with these plasma transfusions.”

Patients are being enrolled in the clinical trial through the ProHealth Care Research Institute under the Mayo Clinic protocol. ProHealth hematologist Timothy Wassenaar, MD, is the lead investigator for the trial at the two ProHealth hospitals.

Potential convalescent plasma donors must have had a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 and be symptom-free for 28 days, or have a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 and be symptom-free for 14 to 21 days and test negative for COVID-19.

Learn more about clinical trials offered by ProHealth.