Analysis of the Pathophysiology and Pathology of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), Including Chronic Morbidity

NAPKON-HAP is the deep phenotyping platform of the National Pandemic Cohort Network (NAPKON) in Germany. NAPKON is a data and biospecimen collection of patients with COVID-19 and is part of the University Medicine Network (NUM) in Germany. The primary objective of the study is to provide a comprehensive collection of data and biosamples for researchers from national consortia and for participation in international research collaborations for studying COVID-19 and future pandemics. Data is collected from patients with COVID-19 three times per week during their hospitalization and at follow-up visits after hospital discharge 3, 6, 12, 24, and 36 months after symptom onset. Data include epidemiological and demographic parameters, medical history and potential risk factors, documentation of routine medical procedures, and clinical course, including different patterns of organ involvement, quality of care, morbidity, and quality of life. Moreover, extensive serial high-quality bio sampling consisting of various sample types is performed to allow deep molecular, immunological, and virological phenotyping. Patients not requiring Intensive Care Unit (ICU)/ Intermediate Care (IMC) treatment will receive 7 and patients requiring ICU/IMC treatment will receive 16 full-phenotyping visits including sampling for biobanking. During hospitalisation the planned blood sampling rate in total is 35 ml at each visit. The total amounts and/or sampling dates may differ according to the ethics committee's regulations for different study centers. At follow-up visits, the clinical assessment includes an update of the medical history and recent medical events from which additional clinical data is collected (i.e. outpatient CT-scans, echocardiography, external laboratory data). Clinical symptoms are recorded and a physical examination will be performed. Vital signs are recorded and routine blood testing and biosampling is continued. Quality of life is measured with patient-reported outcome