One Year of COVID: As Scientific Innovation Went Into Overdrive, Here's What Happened At UnitedHealth Group

Paige Minemyer Senior Editor for Fierce Health Payer
Apr 28, 2021 5:00 PM ET
We take a look back at how COVID-19 impacted UnitedHealth Group's approach to scientific research and development. (UnitedHealth Group)

Originally published on Fierce Healthcare

Editor's note: It's been a year since COVID-19 changed everything. We take a look back at some of the pandemic's biggest impacts.

Deneen Vojta was on spring break in Florida with her family as it became clear that COVID-19 was going to hit the United States in a big way.

Vojta, M.D., executive vice president for research and development at UnitedHealth Group, said that as the Trump administration rolled out early travel bans at the beginning of 2020, she decided to cut the vacation short and plan her return to Minneapolis to get to work. 

She is part of a research team at UHG which has rolled out a slew of projects over the past year in response to the pandemic, ranging from studies on COVID therapies to home health to protective equipment.

"I haven't worked this hard since I was an intern," Vojta told Fierce Healthcare in an interview. "But when you’re in R&D and you’re in the beginning, in the middle and hopefully the ending part of a pandemic…this is what we’ve trained for."

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