The Fight Against COVID-19

UCI COVID-19 UPDATES & RESOURCES

UCI is closely monitoring the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) situation and associated communications from the county, state and federal authorities.  The university continually provides updates through a dedicated UCI COVID-19 website and email communications and takes steps to ensure the health and safety of our community.

Visit the UCI COVID-19 Resource Site

UCI Health infectious disease experts are assisting with statewide and national efforts to track the outbreak and contain the spread of COVID-19, or novel coronavirus.  UCI Health experts are in regular contact with the World Health Organization Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Orange County Health Care Agency (HCA).

The primary objective at UCI Health is to ensure the safety of patients and employees while delivering world-class care at our hospital and community locations. This includes preventive daily screening of our physicians, staff and other healthcare providers.

Visit the UCI Health COVID-19 Resource Site

To provide helpful advice and informative stories about life during the COVID-19 pandemic, UCI has launched a comprehensive news site to serve Orange County and regional communities.  UCI and UCI Heath are uniquely positioned to provide timely information about this crisis.  Scholars, scientists and caregivers are working tirelessly to find solutions to the myriad health, technology, lifestyle, economic, political and cultural issues linked to the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Visit the OC COVID-19 Resource Site

The Orange County Health Care Agency (HCA) established a COVID-19 Hotline (714) 834-2000. The HCA COVID-19 hotline is dedicated to calls related to general questions about the County of Orange’s efforts related to COVID-19. It is not a replacement for the Health Referral Line, which is specific to those who are in need of medical attention. The hotline is manned from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

COVID-19 RESEARCH

Institute teams are focused and dedicated to discovering solutions to real-world medical problems – in areas such as airway disorders, burns and wounds, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurologic injury and disease, oral health, skin disease, exercise medicine, vascular malformations and trauma and critical care – and now, rapidly responding to the COVID-19 crisis. Researchers are collaborating across disciplines to develop novel devices and effective treatments to mitigate the pandemic, including:

  • Dr. Chris Barty is developing a low-cost UVC light source found in Blu-ray players that can rapidly and effectively disinfect surfaces and air.
  • Drs. Elliot Botvinick and Bernard Choi are creating a ventilator that repurposes a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine, allowing patients to control their own breathing with less lung trauma.
  • Drs. Tom Milner, Brian Wong and Govind Rajan established the Bridge Ventilator Consortium (BVC) for individuals, universities and private enterprises to support the development, testing and translation of methods and devices to prevent, diagnose and treat COVID-19 patients. Two bridge ventilators spun out of the BVC with the group now focused on noninvasive ventilation, microwave inactivation, light-based therapies and other technology-based solutions to address COVID-related problems.  Read more about UCI Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic’s Bridge Ventilator Consortium.
  • Drs. Tom Milner, Matt Brenner and Robert Brown are developing an optical screening system that allows rapid and low-cost detection of individuals infected with SARS-CoVII.
  • Other researchers are investigating long-term, light-based diagnostic, sterilization and treatment strategies, including therapeutic approaches that use photo-active agents that target COVID-19 in the throat and low-cost diagnostic imaging that can detect micro-clotting in COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients.

SUPPORT COVID-19 RESEARCH

As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, researchers at UCI Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic are at the forefront in solving major pandemic issues.  Institute researchers are dedicated to providing their expertise and working collaboratively to help during the COVID-19 crisis.

As we continue ongoing projects and apply our knowledge and creativity to respond to the critical challenges of COVID-19 and potential future pandemics, the Institute remains grateful for the loyal support and generosity of our philanthropic partners.

Through your gift to COVID-19 research, you support the Institute’s life-saving solutions to combat the deadly symptoms, effects and spread of COVID-19 and future pandemics.