Home monitoring and molecular phenotyping of patients with long-COVID for sub-grouping and follow-up of efficacy of interventions

Since the inception of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the focus of authorities and healthcare providers has been on reducing the mortality acute, severe form of COVID-19.

While the mortality rate of individuals affected by severe COVID-19 has been relatively high, they have made up a small proportion of those infected. A much larger group of severely affected individuals has instead emerged: those with persistent disease.

It is important to highlight that the majority of long-COVID patients do not consist of individuals with prolonged recovery after hospitalization, but instead constitute a completely different phenotype of the disease, in a different demographic group.

While those requiring hospital care are largely elderly or multi-morbid individuals, the majority of long-COVID patients are formerly young, mentally and physically strong individuals who due to mild initial symptoms generally did not seek hospital care. Here we will develop a home monitoring system to facilitate continuous follow-up of long-COVID patients.

Identification of daily fluctuations, activity and physiological parameters will help identify sub-groups of the disease, with specific emphasis on those with lung involvement.

Associated molecular biomarkers will be evaluated using our systems medicine workflow both in lung samples collected with bronchoscopy, and in a non-invasive fashion using PExA. The fully developed system will also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of various forms of treatment.