Latest / Inside the OSD / S4 E12 - The ORCHARDS Study is Back! Ft. Dr. Jon Temte and Shari Barlow

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S4 E12 - The ORCHARDS Study is Back! Ft. Dr. Jon Temte and Shari Barlow · Inside the OSD

• 0:00
  SPEAKER1: If you've been part of the OSD for a while, you're probably familiar with the ORCHARD Study,
• 0:05
  a public health study that we participated in with the UW Department of Family Medicine from 2015 to 2024.
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  This past month, we were asked to continue our participation in a slightly different project called ORCHARDS Air.
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  Today we're meeting with the study principal investigator and project manager, Doctor John Temte and Shari Barlow to hear all about
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  it and the important information it provides in the name of research and for our community.
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  SPEAKER2: Welcome to this episode of Inside the OSD podcast, where it's all about the kids.
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  Here is your host, lifelong educator and our superintendent, Doctor Leslie Bergstrom.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER1: Welcome to Inside the OSD. Could you please start by introducing yourselves and a little bit about your background to our listeners?
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  SPEAKER3: I'm Shari Barlow. I'm a research program manager at the University of Wisconsin in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health,
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  and I have been managing research projects like this one for 25 years.
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  SPEAKER1: Oh, thank you.
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  SPEAKER4: Yeah. And John Temte and I'm a professor of family medicine and community health and also serve as our associate dean for public health and community engagement.
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  But probably more important for ORCHARDS is I'm a longtime resident of Oregon.
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  SPEAKER5: Yes you are.
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  SPEAKER4: Shari and I, uh, separately, have had a total of six children through the school district here.
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  SPEAKER1: We have always appreciated the connection in that way.
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  I think that's really lovely. Um, can you talk about your background with the original ORCHARDS study and the significance of the partnership with the Oregon
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  community and whoever would like to start with that one?
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  SPEAKER4: I'm going to jump back because prior to ORCHARDS, we had another study that we had proposed that not only
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  looked at some of the school issues, but also nursing homes in Oregon, clinics and the broader community.
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  And that one was not funded by CDC. But it laid the groundwork for a very successful application for ORCHARDS and
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  ORCHARDS is really focused at the school district and the families within that school district.
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  SPEAKER1: Absolutely. How--how, um, when was that first partnership proposed?
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  I didn't even remember about that one.
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  SPEAKER4: I believe it was 2011.
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  SPEAKER5: Okay.
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  SPEAKER4: And ORCHARDS first was funded in 2000 and--
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  SPEAKER5: 13. 13. It's a long time ago. Okay. Yeah.
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  SPEAKER1: Thank you. That's an interesting background. Anything you want to add to that, Shari?
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  SPEAKER3: Um, I was just going to say that also just the background of both of us, uh, having children in the district.
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  Um, knowing a lot of people was really helpful.
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  Um, I can remember, uh, one of my son's basketball coaches happened to be the IT guy,
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  Jon Tanner.
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  SPEAKER5: Oh, yeah!
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  SPEAKER3: And so. So, you know, knowing him, he was a lot more willing to, like, chat with me and figure out,
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  like, "how are we going to, like, get this to work and how are we going to collect,
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  like, absenteeism data?"
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  SPEAKER5: And yeah.
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  SPEAKER3: So just having like, those connections and knowing like the teachers to say like,
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  "hey, you have my son in your class and we're starting this study and, uh, you know,
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  if you can kind of spread the word and if you care about, you know, like illness in your classes and trying not to spread viruses." Um,
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  so it was just really helpful to, to have those connections.
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  SPEAKER5: Yeah.
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  SPEAKER1: You could build on existing trust.
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  SPEAKER5: Yeah.
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  SPEAKER1: For sure. And that's, um, I think what made it initially I mean, it was successful right from the start.
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  Was it not related to participation?
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  SPEAKER4: To be honest, in the first 4 or 5 months I was expecting to get about 25 people signed up and we had ten times that.
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  SPEAKER5: Oh.
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  SPEAKER1: All right. That's--that's really great! So what were some of the key findings that resulted from that important work?
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  SPEAKER4: Well, I think first and foremost, we were able to show that we could use absenteeism as a marker for influenza and particularly looking
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  at absenteeism due to illness and absenteeism due to flu like illness.
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  SPEAKER5: Right.
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  SPEAKER4: And that was the core reason for ORCHARDS initially, but then it kept on expanding.
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  So beyond that we learned, for example, things about how influenza spreads within a family,
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  how Covid--ORCHARDS was in place before, during and after the pandemic.
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  So we were able to capture a lot of really interesting things here in Oregon that were of relevance across the country.
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  We showed the very, very first case of household transmission in the state of Wisconsin very early on.
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  I think we were three of the first ten cases in the country of reinfection with Covid from one variant to another.
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  And those were really important findings.
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  And I think also really important was finding that the things that you guys did,
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  the school closure, the masking, the distancing, the hybrid all had really strong effects not only on Covid but on other
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  respiratory infections in households across Oregon.
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  SPEAKER1: Oh, that that is interesting. Um, so now with ORCHARDS Air.
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  So, a new and slightly updated version of the original study.
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  So what is the goal and focus of the new ORCHARDS Air study, and how does it expand on the previous work that you just described?
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  SPEAKER3: So it's very similar. So for families that have participated, it will be very easy for them to catch on and new families will will as well.
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  But, um, the main difference is we are adding air surveillance.
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  That's the "air" part of it. Um, we're partnering--partnering with a lab on campus.
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  It's the O'Connor lab. So Dave and Shelby O'Connor, who have been actually working with the district in the past in collaboration
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  with us on doing some air sampling in the schools.
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  So now we're bringing that into families homes.
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  So if someone participates in the ORCHARD study where they collect swabs from everyone in their family on day zero,
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  day seven and day 14, they will also be offered an option to participate in air surveillance,
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  where we'll bring a little air sampler about the size of a little toaster that we will ask them to just plug in and turn on and put in like a common space in
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  their home for the 14 days that they're in the study.
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  And they do have to change the cartridge in the air sampler one time on day seven.
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  What we're looking to see, like "what sort of viruses are in the air?
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  Do they match what we're--What you're swabbing and what we're finding in the swabs?" Um.
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  And, you know, the hope is to learn a lot from this and to see, like, is this something that would be more feasible for families in the future
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  or for institutions in the future? Like, do we really need to swab kids all the time or anyone?
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  Um, or could we just have air samplers in homes, in hospitals, in airports, in schools?
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  SPEAKER5: So the idea,
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  SPEAKER1: you could have it in your home and you'd find out if there was a virus circulating in your home,
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  even if it hadn't yet made you sick. And that might influence what you do?
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  SPEAKER5: Correct.
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  SPEAKER1: Interesting.
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  SPEAKER5: Thank you.
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  SPEAKER1: Yeah. Um, so just to help people understand how other than what I just said, why is it important to detect viruses when they're circulating in the air?
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  What can it do for people?
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  SPEAKER4: Well, one of the things we learned during the Covid pandemic is the fact that we could use wastewater,
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  SPEAKER5: for
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  SPEAKER4: example, from a sewage treatment plant to detect when Covid was occurring.
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  Since that time, we've seen this technology used for other things now.
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  So for influenza, for RSV and for things like measles.
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  And so we're now seeing the ability to detect very rare things very early on from
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  wastewater.
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  SPEAKER5: Yes.
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  SPEAKER4: The addition of looking at air gives us a couple of things.
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  One, it's also that very early detection, especially when we look within a congregate setting.
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  It also is considered a non individual sample.
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  So it's excluded from a lot of the things that we have to go through when we're dealing with a named individual.
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  These are kind of anonymous samples and that's important.
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  But then it also tells us something, perhaps about transmission if we're able to detect it in the air.
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  And it's a respiratory infection that gets transmitted through breathing in.
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  Then maybe this gives us an ability to intervene and shut down some of the infections.
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  SPEAKER1: That is so fascinating. How practically, how might that be able to occur?
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  Like if you get an indication that there is virus in the air, what would be the next steps?
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  What do you do?
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  SPEAKER4: Well, this is very early on right now, but there's a lot of discussion in terms of air exchange within a room,
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  within a building and so on, the use of high efficiency filters and things like that.
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  And so I think those are the areas that we're looking at.
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  We do know that, for example, this technology is pretty sophisticated in airlines right now,
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  and the air you're breathing in your section is being recirculated, but it's not being recirculated from other sections.
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  And if there is an infection on that plane is pretty well compartmentalized.
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  And so--I
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  SPEAKER5: did not know that.
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  SPEAKER4: And that's a real change for the last 30 years.
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  SPEAKER5: Yes.
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  SPEAKER4: Where we used to have a case of influenza on a plane and 80% of the people in that plane would come down with that same strain.
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  So these are things, but it's very, very early right now.
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  This is just on the cusp
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  SPEAKER5: of
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  SPEAKER4: this technology.
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  SPEAKER5: Well, ORCAHRDS
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  SPEAKER1: was just on the cusp when you started, too, right?
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  So this is, um, really exciting. So how do you see this work impacting the families who participate in the community at large?
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  And, um, what are your big hopes for how it impacts public health overall?
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  SPEAKER3: Um, I think I'll speak to the families. Um, I think that we're hoping that they're excited about this.
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  I feel like in the past, we've learned that families in the Oregon school district are really excited about science and like including their children,
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  in that, helping them learn about viruses and how they spread and how they can help them not to spread to their brother or sister or
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  friends. Um, so I think that we're just excited to involve the community again in this great,
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  exciting project. Um, with the addition of air to learn something new again.
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  Um, like, is it different? Is it the same?
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  Um, what what exciting things are happening?
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  And maybe in the future they'll have one in their house and they'll be like, "I remember when
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  SPEAKER1: I was a part of a study when I was in
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  SPEAKER3: second grade."
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  SPEAKER1: Yeah. That's great. That's great.
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  SPEAKER3: Yeah.
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  SPEAKER4: And I think one of the important things is all the technology we're using starts out really expensive,
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  and over time it tends to get less and less expensive.
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  And I think when we talk about our colleagues Dave and Shelby O'Connor.
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  The air samplers they're using now are very, very cheap compared to ones they used a generation ago.
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  Um, you know, being 4 or 5 years, the big air samplers that were $2500 to $5000 per unit,
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  and now we're talking
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  SPEAKER3: hundreds.
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  SPEAKER4: About $100, but these are coming down. And at the same time, the technology for detection,
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  uh, of viruses is dropping down or the cost is dropping incredibly so.
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  And the ability to, to do multiple samples very, very quickly.
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  And so we're waiting for the day that, for example, you can have a sampler
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  SPEAKER1: on your
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  SPEAKER4: phone and it can give you a result, uh, you know, virtually in real time.
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  SPEAKER1: And people can take action quickly and hopefully, maybe even prevent getting sick to begin with.
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  SPEAKER4: Yeah. And I think, as you know, educators, you guys know very well that it's not only the kids who lose time from school,
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  but one of the real precious commodities right now are teachers.
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  And when teachers are sick, um, it's really getting harder and harder to find substitutes.
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  Uh, it's finding it's difficult to keep the kids on track.
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  So this is important not only from a health standpoint, but from an educational standpoint.
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  SPEAKER1: Oh, I appreciate that so much because you're absolutely right.
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  It's important for many reasons that our staff stay healthy.
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  So, um, now let's talk a little bit about logistics.
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  So at this point the study is scheduled to go through June of 2026.
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  So it relies on voluntary participation from families.
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  So how can families participate and what will they experience if they enroll?
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  SPEAKER3: Yes. So right now the study is scheduled to go through June.
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  It does sound like we will be getting another year.
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  SPEAKER1: Oh that's
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  SPEAKER3: exciting!
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  SPEAKER1: Okay.
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  SPEAKER3: Um, but we'll we'll keep you posted. Um, but if anyone wants to participate, they can call us at (608) 265-3164.
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  Um, we will go through a phone screen with the family.
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  Um, we need the parent to call us of anyone for a child that's under 18.
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  Um, we'll go through a phone screen with them to see if they're eligible to participate. Basically, they need to have a respiratory symptoms for seven days
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  or less. Okay. Um, and then if they're eligible, we will we actually drop supplies off at their home.
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  Um, we drop them outside of their door, um, with their swabs that they'll need to collect on day zero seven and 14 and
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  the air sampling materials, if they choose to be in that portion of the study.
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  Um, they do get paid $50 for participating in the study, and they get $25 if they participate in the Substudy with the air sampling.
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  Okay. Um, we do also have an email address.
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  It's orchards@fammed.wis.edu and we have a website which is fammed.wis.edu/ORCHARDS
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  where they can go and read more information about the study and the criteria to participate.
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  SPEAKER1: Oh, thank you very much. So that's really the best place to go if they'd like to learn more right now.
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  Is that correct? Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you both.
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  SPEAKER6: Remember that you can find links to all episodes of Inside the OSD and submit topic ideas on our website at OregonSD.org/podcast.
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• 15:27
  Make sure to subscribe if you're listening on one of these apps to get notifications on the most recent episodes.
• 15:33
  We'll see you next time on Inside the OSD, where it's all about the kids.