By Katarina A. Lewczyk | Date published: February 18, 2025
Apurv Soni and Kimberly Fisher Discuss Success of Home Test to Treat Program
The Home Test to Treat program, a virtual community health intervention, was launched in 2023 as a federal response to improve access to COVID-19 testing and treatment. The program was a collaboration among the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Administration for Strategic Preparedness & Response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UMass Chan Medical School, VentureWell, and eMed. It allowed participants to receive free COVID-19 tests, telehealth consultations, and prescriptions for oral antiviral medications delivered to their homes or available for pick up.
According to principal investigator Apurv Soni, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Health Systems Science-Clinical Informatics Section and co-director of the Program in Digital Medicine, and Kimberly Fisher, MD, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine and lead of qualitative evaluations, the program has received positive feedback. “The program surpassed its enrollment goal of 60,000. More than 100,000 people expressed interest in Home Test to Treat; more than 80,000 enrolled; more than 40,000 received tests at home; more than 10,000 tested positive for COVID-19; 8,000 received telehealth; and more than 6,000 were prescribed oral antivirals such as Paxlovid,” said Dr. Soni.
The program, which concluded in April 2024, expanded in December 2023 to include testing and treating for the flu. “A real strength and benefit of the Home Test to Treat project is really widespread access with no barrier to getting care for a significant problem,” said Dr. Fisher. “The model offered advantages to physicians because much of the telehealth for patients could be handled by other clinical staff.”