EULAR launches COVID-19 rheumatic disease reporting database
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EULAR has launched a European database to monitor and report outcomes of COVID-19 among pediatric and adult patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases, according to a press release.
Established with support from the newly formed COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance, the database will use anonymized patient data to provide the rheumatology community with regularly updated information on reported cases of COVID-19, including the numbers of cases by country and by treatment, EULAR officials said.
“There is an urgent need to understand outcomes of patients who acquire COVID-19 and are receiving steroids, synthetic or biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs,” Pedro Machado, MD, PhD, of the University College London, and chair of the EULAR Standing Committee of Epidemiology and Health Services Research, said in the press release. “This will help guide rheumatologists and other clinicians such as specialist nurses in advising and caring for their patients.”
The database can be accessed here: https://www.redcap.rss.mhs.man.ac.uk/surveys/?s=NEXNJFWX38.
EULAR is encouraging European rheumatology clinicians to report all positive cases of COVID-19 among their rheumatology patients, regardless of severity, including those who are asymptomatic. Information on less severe and mild cases could help develop further understanding of patients with the most severe forms of the disease, the organization said.
According to EULAR, information from the European database will later be merged with cases reported to the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance.
“We are grateful to our international colleagues who have established the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance and helped us establish this database,” Machado said in the release. “Anonymized data collected by the EULAR-COVID-19 Database will be shared with this other international register, based in the United States.”
The EULAR database will also be supported by the Pediatric Rheumatology European Society (PReS), which is dedicated to advancing care and improving health among children with rheumatic diseases.
“PReS fosters excellence in clinical care, training and education, research and leadership amongst health care professionals and scientists worldwide,” read the release, in part. “Together with patient and parent organizations, PRES promotes the implementation of advances in clinical, basic and translational research to help children reach their full potential.”