The Martinos Center Responds The usual hustle and bustle of the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging came to a dramatic halt in March 2020 when the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic. But members of the Martinos community were anything but idle during the weeks and months that followed. Even as the pandemic continued to grow, many Center researchers and staff stepped into new roles to help with the COVID-19 response. Beginning in April, Mass General redeployed staff from across the hospital to meet the needs of the surge in COVID-19 cases. Many in the Martinos Center answered the call: among them, Paula S. Lara Mejia, a clinical research coordinator with the Michael VanElzakker group, who assisted clinicians in COVID-19 ICUs by listening for alerts from portable ventilators not connected to the hospital’s central alarm system. The researchers and staff members were glad to be able to contribute. “As someone applying to medical school, it has been very interesting to be in this environment during the pandemic,” Lara Mejia told us at the time. “I’m very honored to be able to play a small role on the front lines and grateful for this experience.” Even as some in the Center were redeploying to ICUs, others were finding ways to help outside the hospital. A few of the many examples:
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