Long Covid Care

STIMULATE-ICP (Symptoms, Trajectory, Inequalities and Management: Understanding Long-COVID to Address and Transform Existing Integrated Care Pathways) 

Introduction

Currently in England, there are 90 specialist Post Covid services in which assessment and treatment of Long Covid, and other complications of COVID-19, are informed by NICE guidelines and growing expertise in the field. However, there is evidence that access to such clinics and related care pathways, the nature of those pathways, and patient experience, varies. Research is required to inform diagnosis, care, public health strategies, policy planning, resource allocation and budgeting. It is likewise essential to define the usual care pathway in Post Covid services, and to understand patient presentation, and the effectiveness and cost of care.

We will:

• Interview patients and health care professionals working in Post Covid services to understand their experience and document how the services function
• Invite patients to take part in a follow up survey to examine the outcomes of care and cost
• Review clinic data and patient reported data to estimate the costs of Long Covid care, and how this varies by service and patient characteristics
• Analyse routine data such as GP data and Hospital Episode Statistics as a supplement to the results from Post Covid services

This study is part of the larger STIMULATE-ICP research programme and is funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). Ethical approval was obtained from South Central - Berkshire Research Ethics Committee (IRAS 303958).

The study protocol is available here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0271978 (PLOS ONE).

Where are we now?

The work set out above has been concluded and you can read the outputs as follows:

• What is current care for people with Long COVID in England? A qualitative interview study: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/14/5/e080967.full
• Healthcare Utilisation of 282,080 Individuals with Long COVID Over Two Years: A Multiple Matched Control Cohort Analysis, in preprint: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4598962 4
• Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Characterization of Individuals with Long COVID Using Electronic Health Records in Over 1.5 Million COVID Cases in England, Value in Health: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1098301523041839?via%3Dihub

How can I find out more?

If you have any questions about this project, please contact the team at stimulate-careinequal@ucl.ac.uk.

Do watch our patient-led video on this part of the study below.