ICMR plans to set up registry of hospitalised COVID-19 patients

A registry of hospitalised COVID-19 patients across the country is being mooted to collect real-time data which will help improve treatment outcomes, analyse trends in the progression of the pandemic and calibrate response, officials said.

The ICMR in collaboration with the Health Ministry and the AIIMS is planning to set up the National Clinical Registry which will help researchers and policymakers understand the effectiveness of investigational therapies, adverse effects taking place and generate evidence for improving the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

"The aim is to collect data of the hospitalised COVID-19 patients like clinical and laboratory features, their demographics, comorbidities, treatment outcomes, complications in all age groups among others," officials said.

The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 and the illness it is causing have so many unknown parameters that are a barrier to the proper understanding and management of the disease, they said.

"A systematically collected, comprehensive database covering different regions of the country will enable both researchers and policymakers to generate pertinent hypotheses, to inform crucial understanding of COVID 19, to detect trends in the progression of the pandemic and to accordingly calibrate the response to the pandemic," an official said.

Fifteen institutions of national repute including the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh, AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Jodhpur, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru and Armed Force Medical College in Pune will connect with the hospitals and medical colleges to get them on board.

These 15 institutions would be the registry sites and would be mentoring around 100 COVID-19 hospitals which would be called satellite centres from where the data would be collected as part of the exercise.

The proposal has been sent for approval to the  Central Ethics Committee on Human Research (CECHR) of the ICMR.  "The data will help improve the clinical management protocols as the repository would help us know which drug is working better in which age group, the effectiveness of investigational therapies and adverse effects taking place. The idea is to generate evidence for improving the treatment of COVID-19 patients," another official said.