We are officially one month removed from the end of the #OHDSICOVID19 study-a-thon. Our community continues to build on studies generated from that terrific collaborative event, and we also look towards future studies to aid the COVID-19 response. Still, plenty has happened over the last month, and we wanted to highlight some of it here.
Two studies are currently in the peer-review process, but they have both been posted to MedRxiv. The estimation team completed an important study on the safety of hydroxychloroquine, alone and in combination with azithromycin, the largest study ever on the safety profile of a drug that generated significant attention as a potential COVID-19 therapy. Harlan Krumholz authored a blog post highlighting this study in Forbes.
The characterization team recently submitted the first multi-institution characterization of COVID-19 patients, which reported on the characteristics (demographics, prior conditions and medication use) of more than 6,800 COVID-positive patients from four databases. They were also compared to more than 52,000 patients hospitalized with influenza between 2014-19.
The study-a-thon itself, which was featured here, has many more studies in progress, including several that were discussed during the global closing call. There is an #OHDSICOVID19 YouTube playlist that includes each individual presentation from the global closing call, including studies focused on characterization, estimation and prediction.
Our work is being noticed outside of the OHDSI community. The EMA cited our hydroxychloroquine study in a recent post on the risks involved with HcQ and chloroquine, while both Science Magazine and MedPageToday.com also included our work in their articles.
Where will we be on May 29? As mentioned in the April 28 post, there are exciting initiatives in early development on both characterization studies on various aspects of COVID-19, as well as estimation studies that focus on the safety and anti-viral effectiveness of all emerging therapies for the treatment of COVID-19. Prediction studies are in the process of external validation across our data network, and these could lead to important findings that inform healthcare decision-making around COVID-19. Of course, there is plenty more, so please keep checking this page for regular updates!