Lombardia long COVID Network (LLC-Network)

Duration: 1/10/2022-30/09/2025

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, continues to impact lives despite partial control in high-income areas due to vaccination. Many individuals experience long COVID, a condition with symptoms such as fatigue, dyspnea, chest pain, and cognitive issues, that significantly reduce quality of life. The Lombardia long COVID Network (LLC) aims to gather existing long COVID data from various sources and develop a proof-of-concept web platform. This platform will integrate and analyze data, provide real-time advice on best practices, and offer educational materials for healthcare workers and the public. Currently, despite the large amount of data, long COVID still represent an issue for patients, clinicians and society in general. 

Project Leader

  • Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico

Partners

  • Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico (IRCCS Ca’ Granda)
  • Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)
  • UNIMI Mach (UMIL)
  • Fondazione ONDA (FO)
  • ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (HSP)
  • ASST Spedali Civili Brescia (HSCB)
  • ASST Niguarda (HN)
  • IRCCS Mario Negri (IRFMN)

Funding

  • Fondazione Cariplo

Goal

To gather data regarding long COVID already available in several repositories from hospitals, general practitioners’ networks, and administrative databases and develop a web platform (proof-of-concept) where all these data can be merged and queried to answer the questions elaborated by a panel of clinicians experienced in the management of long COVID.

Objectives

  • Spreading awareness and knowledge about the condition of Long-COVID, to support access to care;
  • Digitalization, for faster and widespread circulation of knowledge among specialists;
  • Training healthcare professionals, to develop skills useful for diagnosing, managing, and treating other conditions remotely as well;
  • Creation of a standardized model, for effective patient management and long-term follow-up of Long-COVID patients;
  • Studying the replicability of the designed intervention model, to extend it to other facilities;
  • Investigating the replicability of the approach used, to extend it to other diseases.

Activities

  • Data definition, collection, management, and harmonization;
  • Data management platform;
  • From data analysis to innovation in care;
  • Dissemination and know-how transfer.

Impact

  • Mutual interchange of data, with real-time advice on suggested best practices adjustments based on the available evidence.
  • Provision of educational material for healthcare workers and the general public and models for standard operating procedures which could be widely implemented among healthcare providers.