PointClickCare to Provide De-Identified Patient Data for COVID-19 Patient Registry

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario (July 9, 2020)—PointClickCare, a cloud-based software platform for the senior care market has been selected by the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) to provide de-identified patient data for the Discovery Viral Infection and Respiratory Illness Universal Study (VIRUS) COVID-19 Registry.

Created by SCCM’s Discovery, the Critical Care Research Network, VIRUS tracks ICU and hospital care patterns in near real-time to enable evaluation of safety and observational effectiveness of COVID-19 practices and determine practice variations across hospitals. VIRUS is a cross-sectional observational study and registry of eligible adult and pediatric patients admitted to a hospital. There is no intervention or patient interaction, and only de-identified data will be used for analysis. The registry features a dashboard tracking data on trends including length of stay in the ICU and mechanical ventilation duration. The registry will also study mortality and health impact post-ICU.

VIRUS will partner with Lighthouse, PointClickCare’s newly-formed internal group with a mission to provide health care organizations, government agencies and life sciences companies with de-identified data from older adults. The goal of providing data that specifically represents seniors, a population often considered to be at higher risk for severe illness, is to support research with the goal of expediting drug discovery and development. Lighthouse will provide the VIRUS COVID-19 Registry with de-identified data on COVID-19 diagnosed patients, including demographics, vitals, medications and health-related outcomes to help better understand their health post-ICU. PointClickCare will continue to deliver relevant data on COVID-19 patients throughout the study period.

“The Society of Critical Care Medicine is proud to have PointClickCare as a partner in the Discovery VIRUS Registry, as both organizations strive to fulfill a shared mission to improve care for patients with COVID-19 and develop strategies for future outbreaks,” said SCCM CEO David Martin, CAE. “We are finding new ways to collaborate, share data and communicate information, moving quickly under unprecedented timelines. These strong partnerships are vital to our success.”

Rahul Kashyap, MBBS, MBA of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota serves as principal investigator; along with co-principal investigators Vishakha Kumar, MD, MBA of SCCM and Allen J. Walkey, MD, MSc of Boston University. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced unprecedented challenges to health care systems worldwide, but we live in a more connected world and we must work together and learn from each other’s experiences to help reduce the severity of the impact,” said Dr. Kashyap, M.B.B.S., MBA, Mayo Clinic researcher and principal investigator of the VIRUS COVID-19 Registry. “This dissemination of aggregated knowledge shared in a single database in a timely manner will be essential for comparative effectiveness studies. It will be a game changer.”

As a leader in advancing senior care, PointClickCare is uniquely positioned to provide insights about the aging population. Through Lighthouse, PointClickCare will share data and insights from its large data set developed from consenting providers. In addition to SCCM, PointClickCare is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Healthcare Association (AHCA) on COVID-19 research.

“Lighthouse builds on PointClickCare’s commitment to sharing data and insights that drive action for better care, thereby accelerating innovation designed to protect vulnerable populations. We are honored to partner with SCCM and committed to helping shed light on trends in COVID-19 care around the world,” said Mike Wessinger, founder and CEO, PointClickCare.

The Lighthouse project is just one example of PointClickCare’s efforts to fight COVID-19 and arm frontline workers with the tools they need to keep vulnerable populations safe. Additional innovations include the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) solution, a clinical workflow and intelligence solution that helps care teams achieve ongoing resident surveillance focused on infection prevention at the facility or enterprise level. PointClickCare has also deployed a Crisis Response and Readiness solution, broadening access to telehealth services to all customers, and enabling a HIPAA-compliant dialogue between staff and physicians.

“At PointClickCare, we are committed to doing everything we can to support our customers and the heroes at the frontline who are working around the clock to keep the aging population safe. We are proud to participate in the VIRUS COVID-19 Registry and champion for this demographic, especially during this critical time,” said Dave Wessinger, co-founder and president, PointClickCare.

For more information about the Discovery VIRUS COVID-19 Registry, visit sccm.org/virus. Visit pointclickcare.com for more information.