The McMaster Multi-Regional Hospital Coronavirus Registry (COREG): Extending a Rapid Research Platform to Inform the Clinical Management of COVID-19 'long haulers'

In March of 2020, we launched the McMaster Multi-Regional Hospital Coronavirus Registry (COREG https://www.coregontario.ca/), a unique COVID-19 platform that is collecting detailed data on laboratory confirmed COVID-19 hospital patients, in collaboration with the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC). This platform has collected detailed data on COVID-19 positive patients (n=2000+) across 7 cohorting hospitals in Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, and Niagara. The COREG platform has also recruited over 130 patients who survived hospitalisation for COVID-19 to participate in a longer-term study on functional recovery from COVID-19. The COREG functional recovery study is collecting detailed information on symptoms, functioning and health outcomes at 3-,6-, and 9-months after hospital discharge for patients who had serious COVID-19 illness. Funding for the COREG platform, originally supported by CIHR, expires in June 2021. In light of our preliminary findings suggesting that as many as 70% of our study participants report that COVID-19 continues to impact their everyday life, we propose to continue our study for another year while expanding its scope. We will continue recruiting patients, add a 12-month follow-up visit, and collect additional information on hospital readmission, vaccination status, as well as study the impact of the new variants of COVID-19 on short- and long-term patient outcomes. This information is critical for understanding how best to support patients with COVID-19 in their recovery process in the months and years to come.