It seems as though there will never be enough “thank-you’s” for the incredible doctors, nurses, technicians and support staff who are working around the clock to help patients with this dangerous coronavirus disease. It’s their dedication, determination and spirit that enable Johns Hopkins to deliver the promise of medicine.

Katherine Fenstermacher is a virologist who maintains a dual role as a clinical research program manager for both the Department of Emergency Medicine and the biocontainment unit, sites that were at the front lines of the early COVID-19 pandemic. Fenstermacher worked to initiate the first clinical trial at Johns Hopkins for COVID-19 treatment, and now manages the hospital wide clinical characterization protocol while working to determine which risk factors contribute to COVID-19 being fatal for some patients while others are asymptomatic. Fenstermacher and other researchers aim to understand what features are associated with severe disease and poor clinical outcomes, and they hope that will help identify patients in need of early intervention and contribute to development of future clinical treatments.

Fenstermacher, who collaborates with a team including research coordinators, doctors, nurses and scientists, says, “We’re all working incredibly hard while gathering as much information as possible about this serious disease. Every second is critical to helping our current and future patients.”

Fenstermacher is available for interviews.

For information from Johns Hopkins Medicine about the coronavirus pandemic, visit hopkinsmedicine.org/coronavirus. For information on the coronavirus from throughout the Johns Hopkins enterprise, including the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and The Johns Hopkins University, visit coronavirus.jhu.edu.