From left; Ben McGlothlin, Scott Kern, Krystal Burge, Mark Peterson
From left, Scott Kern, KRMC Foundation; Emilie and Scott Preston, Preston Investments; Ben McGlothlin, KRMC Foundation
KINGMAN – Thanks to generous donations from locally-owned businesses― Preston Investments and Peterson Burge Enterprises― along with individual donations from community members, Kingman Regional Medical Center (KRMC) will conduct a local epidemiologic study of COVID-19 later this summer.
The study will involve several thousand community members who volunteer to participate in the effort. They will be given free antibody testing to determine if they previously had COVID-19. They will also be asked to complete a detailed questionnaire about their exposure history.
Dr. John Ashurst, Medical Director of KRMC’s Graduate Medical Education Department and Program Director of the Emergency Medicine Residency will act as the principle investigator of the study.
According to Dr. Ashurst, the purpose of the study is twofold. “The data we collect will help us better understand how the virus was transmitted within our community. It will also help us identify factors that may be contributing to the continuation of local spread of the disease,” he said.
Scott and Emilie Preston of Preston Investments donated $20,000 to help fund the study. According to Scott Preston, “The COVID-19 outbreak is an unprecedented challenge in our area. It is extremely important to understand as much as we can at a local level to better protect our community.”
Mark Peterson and Krystal Burge of Peterson Burge Enterprises also gave $10,000 to the study. Krystal Burge stated, “We’re fortunate that we have an opportunity to gather information about the pandemic locally rather than rely solely on data from outside our area.”
Additionally, the emergency medicine residency through Midwestern University and individual community members have donated to KRMC’s COVID-19 response efforts, which will be applied to study costs.
The KRMC Foundation has matched all donations to date, which total $44,000.
Dr. Ashurst states that additional funding allows him to test more community members. “The more people involved in the study, the more we can learn,” he said.
KRMC will continue to accept donations for the study. Please contact Ben McGlothlin at (928) 263-2873 for more information.
Further details on how local individuals can volunteer to participate in the study will be announced in coming weeks.
