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Identifying patients at increased risk for severe COVID-19 is of high priority during the current pandemic. In our new study we assessed whether a second PCR test conducted during the first week after a SARS-CoV-2 positive test could identify patients at risk for developing severe illness.

In this study we analyzed data from electronic health records of 15,822 SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals and showed that a second negative PCR test result was associated with lower risk for severe illness compared to a positive result. The association was seen across different age groups and settings (community vs hospital). Importantly, this association was not limited to recovering patients but also observed in patients who still had evidence of COVID-19 as determined by a subsequent positive PCR test.

Our study suggests that multiple SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing may be used as an early, wide-spread complementary tool for risk assessment and subsequent appropriate disease management. Applying this methodology in COVID-19 clinical settings may alert physicians of patients at deterioration risk and facilitate early interventions, extend/limit isolation and allow better patient monitoring in hospital or at home.

Our latest research on symptoms dynamics of COVID-19, led by Barak Mizrahi, Nir Kalkstein and Karni Markus was published in Nature Communications this week.

ISPE 36th International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology & Therapeutic Risk Management

This study was done in collaboration with researchers from Weizmann institute and Maccabi Institute for Research & Innovation. We studied over 200,000 people, among them 2471 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection, and mapped reported symptoms before and after testing. Patients presented large variations in disease severity and recovery time with some symptoms lasting weeks. The most distinguishing factors for testing positive were loss of taste or smell (which was evident 3 weeks prior to testing) and fatigue. The study also included over 20,000 children, among them 862 tested positive and presented a faster recovery time compared to adults.
This study may assist in early identification of clinical symptoms for COVID-19, aid in the differential diagnosis, alert physicians for possible infection and facilitate timely testing, social isolation and treatment.

Our latest manuscript, with Maccabi Institute for Research & Innovation identified risk factors for COVID-19 complications. We studied a cohort of all SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals in a nationwide health organization (covering 2.3 million individuals) and identified those who suffered from serious complications; and compared the prevalence of pre-existing conditions, extracted from electronic health records, between complicated and non-complicated COVID-19 patient cohorts. Our analysis suggests that cardiovascular and kidney diseases, obesity, and hypertension are significant risk factors for COVID-19 complications, as previously reported. Interestingly, it also indicates that depression, as well as cognitive and neurological disorders, are significant risk factors; and that smoking and background of respiratory diseases do not significantly increase the risk of complications.

KI senior researcher Guy Amit will present our work on predicting post-partum depression. The first ever virtual congress of the European Psychiatric Association was attended by more than 2,900 people. KI’s research with collaborators from Weil-Cornell Medicine and Sheba medical center was presented in the oral session titled ‘Depressive Disorders’.

KI Senior researcher Chen Yanover participated in the virtual OHDSI COVID-19 Study-A-Thon. Chen participated in a COVID-19 global, virtual study-a-thon of the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) community. More than 330 people from over 30 countries collaborated in the event, aiming to make an impact on the current global pandemic by bringing out value from COVID-19 health data analytics.