Evaluating the Impact of Laboratory Testing on Clinical Outcomes of COVID-19 Patients: A GENCOV Study

Understanding why patients respond to SARS-CoV-2 infections so diversely has remained an ongoing question throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic. Laboratory testing offers one valuable approach that physicians can use to monitor disease progression and its severity. By measuring various biochemical markers from the blood and other bodily fluids, more can be learned about a patient's physiological condition and how to better treat them. Previous studies show that certain biochemical results, like high troponin and C-reactive protein levels, can be insightful for predicting poor patient outcomes; however, the relation between specific biomarkers and their impact on COVID-19 patient responses is still largely unknown. Moreover, testing utility in terms of test type and frequency of testing is another aspect inherent to monitoring patient responses that has yet to be defined with respect to COVID-19. As such, the proposed project intends to first examine if there is any association between four possible COVID-19 patient outcomes (including intubation, length of hospital stay, readmission, or mortality) and test results of biochemical markers as ordered by physicians. In addition, this project also aims to identify if the frequency of testing has any secondary influence over those same patient outcomes. Evidence from this study will be significant for predicting why some patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 might respond more favorably than others, offering a better understanding of possible illness trajectories. Furthermore, linking biochemical markers and clinical laboratory ordering practices to COVID-19 patient outcomes will have substantial value for informing physicians in how to effectively manage and treat COVID-19 patients in the future.