COVIDOM

The COVIDOM study, also known as the Population-based Platform (POP), is part of the National Pandemic Cohort Network (NAPKON), which was established in July 2020 as part of the Network of University Medicine (NUM). NAPKON brings together previously decentralised national research activities into a common framework of cohorts and infrastructures. NAPKON aims to recruit a high quality cohort of patients with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for in-depth phenotyping of the disease.

Specifically, the COVIDOM study identified all patients with survived SARS-CoV-2 infection in geographically defined collection areas, regardless of severity and representative of the population, and invited them to participate in a long-term diagnostic programme. A detailed retrospective recording of the acute course of the disease and a prospective biomaterial collection as well as the recording of long-term sequelae and comorbidities are performed in an epidemiologically oriented focus hospital in the respective collection regions. The study has been successfully established at the three sites Charité Berlin, University Medical Centre Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) on the Kiel campus and University Medical Centre Würzburg. Annual follow-up examinations (by telephone or on-site) are performed to monitor the long-term outcomes. The aim of the study is to retrospectively record the acute course of the disease and to prospectively investigate long-term organ damage and secondary morbidities after a SARS-CoV-2 infection in a population-representative approach across all degrees of disease severity. Inclusion criteria for the NAPKON-POP/COVIDOM study include: positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 at least 6 months prior to study inclusion, primary residence in one of the three study regions, minimum age 18 years. Recruitment has been completed. Follow-up examinations will be continued until the end of 2024.