LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — We may soon know more about the long-term impacts of COVID-19.
CHI Health and Creighton University are gearing up to help the CDC analyze what happens long after a person catches COVID-19 and a doctor says a key reason the Nebraska hospital stood out was because of diversity.
A Nebraska hospital is getting quite the honor. After being chosen by the CDC to help with an important study, Creighton CHI Health made the announcement Wednesday.
The study, called ‘Clinical Characteristics of Post-Acute COVID-19′ looks into the long-term effects of COVID-19.
“There’s been some studies looking at long COVID but there haven’t been many studies really looking at the whole breadth of what happens to people after they survive COVID and that’s the intent of this study,” said Maureen Tierney, M.D., principal investigator for Creighton/CHI Health.
CHI Health Creighton UMC – Bergan Mercy was picked along with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and Mount Sinai Medical School and Health System in New York.
Tierney says the treatment of people in rural areas will make a difference in their research. Also, all data they analyze will be de-identified, protecting patient confidentiality.
“I think one of the things that CDC thought was very important is that we were able to include patients who are actually, seen outside of a large urban area, so geographic diversity,” said Tierney.
“There’s also some more ethnic diversity in those areas and there are also a significant number of individuals who suffered COVID because they contracted at meatpacking plants.”
Tierney says they will study data records of patients who had COVID from January 2020 to March of this year, studying how they got the illness and digging into more of the symptoms they had after they recovered.
“What symptoms did they develop?” said Tierney. “How long did those symptoms last? What interventions might have made those symptoms better?”
The study will start in a few weeks and end mid-fall, then the CDC will analyze data with all three hospitals selected and make their conclusions.
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