BDD CIS: Big Data Driven Clinical Informatics & Surveillance - A Multimodal Database Focused Clinical, Community, & Multi-Omics Surveillance Plan for COVID19

With South Carolina's population already being vulnerable to poor health as evidenced by poor national health rankings, challenging rural geography and health professional shortages, the impact of the novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) will be long lasting in the state. Patient morbidity and mortality rates already continue to increase, with ongoing economic damage to health systems and businesses. The speed of transmission and geographical spread of COVID-19 across South Carolina and the United States is alarming, which combined with the novel nature of the disease justifies the need for accelerated research to combat this pandemic. As clinicians and frontline health workers battle to save lives, creating a data environment that accelerates research is key, and necessary to fight against the disease. This proposal will build the capacity for accelerated research and intelligence gathering by coalescing multiple state partners and leveraging relevant data for discoveries around COVID-19. To accomplish this, this proposal aims to (1) create a de-identified linked database system via a HIPAA compliant secure server to collate surveillance, clinical, multi-omics and geospatial data on both COVID-19 patients and health workers treating COVID-19 patients in South Carolina; (2) examine the natural history of COVID-19 including transmission dynamics, disease progression, and geospatial visualization; and (3) identify important predictors of short- and long-term clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients in South Carolina using machine learning algorithms. These aims will be accomplished through collaborations with multiple state agencies and stakeholders relevant to COVID-19 and the creation of a secure HIPAA compliant database that allow for coalescing relevant data in a timely fashion, combined with leveraging of statewide integrated data warehouse capabilities.