india

Updated: Apr 07, 2020 13:00 IST

India Covid-19 Clinical Research Collaborative Network, a hospital-based clinical research initiative, is in the works to enhance the understanding of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). The move will help India-specific treatment protocols and push research and development in the field of drug development for the pandemic.

The National Task Force on Covid-19, which is a group of technical experts reviewing key decisions regarding the viral outbreak, has recommended establishing the research collaborative that will be coordinated by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the country’s apex biomedical research organisation.

“The goal of this network is to develop specific clinical management protocols and further research and development for therapeutics. For this purpose, a central database of clinical and laboratory parameters of hospitalised Covid-19 cases is being created,” said a statement from the ICMR.

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All hospitals that are treating Covid-19 patients are being invited to become partners of the network. The research regulator has made public a link https://forms.gle/LHByZkR41UPHqX9FA that needs to be mandatorily filled by those hospitals that are willing to join the network.

“This is clinical research primarily using data at the hospital level. It involves all those who are directly dealing with patient management to get a sense of symptoms. Besides, what’s working and what’s not as far as the treatment is concerned,” said a senior scientist at the ICMR.

Available data have shown that around 80% Covid-19 positive cases will develop mild symptoms, 15% severe symptoms requiring hospitalisation such as difficulty in breathing, and 5% critical enough needing oxygen or ventilator support.

“There is a lot we know so far and a lot more that needs to be known further. The research will keep on evolving. We will get to know new things about the virus and disease pattern with every new research coming out on Covid-19. It’s an ongoing process,” the scientist said.

However, registering for the collaborative does not mean a hospital or a laboratory is exempt from providing other patients’ details to the authorities.

“It is over and above the usual testing and disease management protocol that need to be followed while dealing with Covid-19 suspected or positive cases,” he added.

Hospitals should continue to independently report the data to central and state health authorities in line with the existing guidelines, including local integrated disease surveillance programme units on a real-time basis, the ICMR statement added.