Group helps build jigsaw puzzle that is Covid-19

GROOTE Schuur Hospital and UCT will join clinicians and scientists from across the globe in a global effort to seek out more effective treatments for critically ill Covid-19 patients.

The Covid-19 Critical Care Consortium (Covid Critical) was established in January and includes close to 400 hospitals and research facilities in 52 countries in the study.

Groote Schuur ICU professor Ivan Joubert said doctors, nurses and healthcare workers were doing their very best for every patient they saw, but during a pandemic and with a new disease, it was hard for them to determine how well they were doing.

“The disease and treatments are new to everyone and no context is completely the same. In addition, many of us are working in situations where resources are scarce. Every day, we are making decisions about what is the best strategy for a particular patient. How can we use our resources to help the most people as effectively as possible? The Covid Critical study can help us make those decisions better by providing the most up-to-date information, fuelled by global research and collaboration,” Joubert said.

Data will be collected from various intensive care units to aid in developing the course of Covid-19 treatment and improve patient outcomes.

Project lead Professor John Fraser said: “Right now, this pandemic is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, where there are pieces of information about caring for Covid patients scattered all over the globe. If the world shares all of its data, as we are doing through our consortium, we can bring all these disparate jigsaw puzzle pieces together to create a clearer picture of what these patients need in ICU and how to save lives. With enough data, we will start seeing patterns in what works and when; for example, when might be the best time to ventilate a patient or whether or not to use ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation).”

The consortium will be working with International Business Machine Corporation (IBM) to design a dashboard app that will make the information readily and easily accessible to healthcare professionals via mobile devices or laptops.

“It’s exciting to think that Covid Critical’s research may one day lead to all front-line health workers, regardless of nationality or affiliation, having access to the best and most up-tothe-minute clinical insights, right by their patients’ bedsides through their phones or computers,” said local principal investigator Dr David Thomson.

Member countries in the Critical Care Consortium are among some of the worst affected by the virus, including the US, UK, Italy, Brazil and India.

The Covid-19 Critical Care Consortium study is supported by Isaric (International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium), Australia’s Prince Charles Hospital Foundation, The Wesley Medical Research and Queensland Health. |