Long COVID: Risk factors, Symptomology and Patient Reported Outcomes Captured Through a Novel Digital Platform

Speaker:
Kelli O’Laughlin, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor
Departments of Emergency Medicine and Global Health
University of Washington

Erica Spatz, MD
Assistant Professor
Cardiovascular Medicine
Yale School of Medicine and of Epidemiology
Yale of Public Health

November 9, 2021
Given as part of the FDA CERSI Lecture Series

About the Presentation
While most people with COVID-19 have resolution of their symptoms within weeks of their illness, some people experience post-COVID conditions. Post-COVID conditions are new, returning, or ongoing health problems people can experience four or more weeks after initial infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. These conditions have also been termed long COVID, long-haul COVID, post-acute sequelae of COVID-19, long-term effects of COVID, or chronic COVID. Post-COVID conditions have been observed in people with mild to severe COVID-19 infection, and can present with localized and systemic symptoms impacting nearly all organ systems. The true prevalence of post-COVID conditions is unknown. Several studies report an incidence of 10-30%; however, there are limitations of selection bias, recall bias, and lack of control groups. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded study, the Innovative Support for Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infections (INSPIRE; https://www.covidinspire.org/External Link Disclaimer), is a multisite prospective study based in the U.S. which was designed to compare patient-reported and clinical outcomes following testing for COVID-19 among individuals with symptoms consistent with COVID-like illness, comparing those who test positive versus those who test negative. This presentation reviews the known epidemiology of post-COVID conditions, and describes the methodological approach and data collection strategy of the INSPIRE study.

About the Presenters
Dr. O’Laughlin is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Global Health at the University of Washington. Dr. O’Laughlin attended the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, completed emergency medicine residency at the University of California, Los Angeles/Olive-View UCLA Emergency Medicine Residency Program, and earned her MPH at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a clinical research scientist with a focus on global population health. Dr. O’Laughlin is investigating an interactive voice response (IVR) telephone-based COVID-19 symptom and exposure surveillance tool among refugees in Uganda (PI; Dial-COVID https://www.elrha.org/project/dial-co... Link Disclaimer; Elrha/R2HC Funders: RCDO, Wellcome, NIHR). She is the University of Washington Site-PI for the CDC-funded Innovative Support for Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infections (INSPIRE) study; this multi-site study is designed to assess the long-term outcomes of adults diagnosed with COVID (https://www.covidinspire.org/External Link Disclaimer).

Erica Spatz is a cardiologist and Associate Professor in the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine at Yale School of Medicine and of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health. She is also the Director of the Preventive Cardiovascular Health Program at Yale. Her research focuses on developing individualized approaches to preventing and treating heart disease. She is part of the Long COVID RECOVERY team at Yale and is a site PI on a CDC grant, entitled INSPIRE, designed to assess the long-term outcomes of adults diagnosed with COVID.”