A significant data project for systematic, long-term engagement with the COVID-19 pandemic awaits clearance from the ethics committee of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). In collaboration with the health ministry, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and 15 institutions of national importance, the ICMR will pool a national clinical registry covering all COVID-19 patients who have been hospitalised. The institutions will mentor other clinical organisations involved in the response to the pandemic, to widen the footprint of the database. Both in the short and long term, the utility of a common repository for clinical data cannot be underestimated.
In the short term, a database would help to answer critical questions. What is the phone number of the nearest plasma donor? Which patients can be helped immediately by a newly discovered intervention? But to be completely useful, such a database should engage patients. They should be able to report changes in their condition directly to the database in an organised, delimited manner, automatically flagging the need for intervention to the authorities, and points of interest to researchers.
