Our webinar highlights the need of reliable prognostic tests to personalise long COVID patients’ pathways

On 2 March 2023, COVIRNA hosted the webinar ‘Patient-centred approaches to long COVID‘. Moderated by Mr George Valiotis, Executive Director at EHMA, this webinar focused on overcoming the challenges posed by long COVID. Dr Tomas Zapata, Programme Manager in the Division of Country Health Policies at WHO Europe, highlighted the burden of long COVID for patients and health systems in Europe. The panel discussion featured Prof Thomas Lüscher, President-Elect of the European Society of Cardiology; Ms Ann Li, Founder and Chair of the Flemish Long COVID patients association; Prof Nisreen Alwan, Professor of Public Health at the University of Southampton; and Dr Yvan Devaux, Head of the Cardiovascular Research Unit at the Luxembourg Institute of Health and COVIRNA project coordinator. 

Post COVID-19 condition (PCC), or long COVID, affects a large portion of the global population and there is not yet a complete understanding of its burden on health systems. Patients suffering from long COVID face several challenges, including the lack of knowledge on adequate diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation, as well as the prescription of inadequate treatments. There is currently no treatment for long COVID, because the disease is not yet fully understood. Only symptom-based treatments exist. Further research using randomised controlled trials is needed to get an in-depth understanding of the disease process, and patient involvement in research was deemed important by all participants. The COVIRNA prognostic will allow for early detection of COVID-19 patients at high risk of developing cardiovascular complications. This will lead to a better management of these patients, and therefore a lower risk for COVID-19 patients of developing severe heart problems and other PCC consequences.

You can now read the full webinar report and watch the session recording.