On Oct. 6, 2020, clinicians and researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and the MGB Center for COVID Innovation announced the launch of TestBoston, a large-scale research study to detect active COVID-19 cases and evidence of previous infection, as well as changes in the rates of both, in a representative group of 10,000 Brigham patients reflecting the demographics of greater Boston.

This program will be led by Ann Woolley and Lisa Cosimi, both infectious disease physicians at the Brigham.

TestBoston will invite participation of patients who have been seen at any Brigham site within the past year and live within a 45-mile radius of Boston. Modeled after projects that the Broad Institute has implemented to directly engage patients in biomedical research, TestBoston will involve individuals enrolling online and then receiving a kit in the mail with instructions on how to collect the samples. Study materials will be available in eight different languages to include individuals who do not speak English.  

Samples collected by participants at home will be picked up and returned overnight to the Broad Institute for analysis, leveraging the significant capacity that the Broad has recently developed for SARS-CoV-2 testing. Samples taken using a swab of the front of the nose will be tested for active viral infection with all results being returned to the participant. Samples taken from a dried blood spot obtained by a small finger prick will be tested for antibodies to determine whether the participant has had a previous infection. Antibody results will be aggregated — so that individuals are not identified — and reported at the community level. Together, Broad and the Brigham investigators will analyze all findings in real-time and share them with key stakeholders at the state level, including the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, to enable public health responses to cases of new infection.

One of the team’s goals is to create a platform for home-based sample collection that is integrated with medical and public health systems that can be scaled, if needed, should the Boston area experience a second surge of COVID-19 infections as well as modeled in other cities impacted by COVID-19 and future respiratory viruses. TestBoston will empower communities around Boston to better understand and end COVID-19 by providing an opportunity for patients to partner in research and public health interventions.