Sree Chitra to build clinical registry of Covid patients

Thiruvananthapuram: Sree Chitra Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology (SCIMST) will be doing a clinical registry of Covid patients in Kerala as part of the national clinical registry being formed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The duration of the study will be one year. SCIMST has been asked to create the clinical registry of Covid patients of Lakshwadeep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands too.
The national clinical registry for Covid-19 aims at collecting good quality real-time clinical data to inform evidence-based clinical practice, research, formulating guidelines and policy making.
ICMR plans to use this registry for formulating appropriate patient management strategies and predicting disease severity. The registry will be a collection of systematic data on clinical signs and symptoms, laboratory investigations, management protocols, clinical course of Covid-19 disease, disease spectrum and outcomes of patients.
“It is undoubtedly a significant study being conducted since immense clinical data can be collected. But it has come very late. Most countries have conducted the study before the caseload started increasing. But it is important to have such a study since epidemiological analysis can decide on future course of action. ICMR has decided to have weekly updation of data such that we all will be able to have access on the epidemiological analysis done,” said Dr N Sulphi, vice-president, Indian Medical Association.
Any Covid-19 lab-confirmed and hospitalized patient of any age and meeting the inclusion criteria for the study will be enrolled. Institutes with high inpatient Covid-19 admission will be preferred (admission rate should be a minimum of 100/month for consideration; region-wise decision regarding the number of patients admitted will be taken).
The previous track record of biomedical research, human resource management, investigators experience while interacting with clinicians who were directly involved in patient care management, etc, will also be considered as part of forming the clinical registry.
ICMR has invited hospitals or institutions identified as dedicated Covid-19 hospitals that want to join this study as primary sites. These hospitals will be trained, mentored and supervised by SCIMST.
The objective is to study the frequency, clinical and laboratory features, treatments, and outcomes of Covid-19-related multisystem inflammatory disorder in children and adolescents.
It has been decided to utilize the data to answer research questions on Covid-19-like natural course of disease, disease spectrum, prognostic factors, risk factors, medications, health systems, etc. The study will serve as a platform for additional clinical research studies in selected sites and also to collect follow-up data of discharged Covid-19 patients, if possible.