COVID-evidence

This project aims at providing a freely available and daily updated online database of worldwide trial evidence on benefits and harms of interventions for COVID-19, including interventions for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and clinical management.

The data sources are: PubMed and LitCovid for publications; ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO-ICTRP) and Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) for trial registries; and medRxiv and bioRxiv for preprints. Reports, registry entries, and manuscripts of trials testing any intervention actively allocated to humans with COVID-19 will be included. A broad range of trial designs (including multi-arm but also uncontrolled trials) and interventions (including drug and non-drug treatments, vaccines, diagnostic procedures, and decision algorithms) without restrictions to language, region, or healthcare setting will be included.

This project is headed by PD Dr. med. Lars G. Hemkens MPH (University of Basel & former QUEST Visiting Fellow) and will take place in close collaboration with a world-wide network of partners, e.g. METRICS, METRIC Berlin, and Cochrane Germany.
A multi-method approach combining peer-reviewed search strategies, continuous automated extraction of search results, automated classifications combined with crowd-based manual screening and data extraction, and quality control through expert review will be included.

The new website COVID-evidence.org will provide both the extracted information and links to the original data sources. The modular design of the database will allow continuous updates, addition of new data sources and content, and flexible adjustments to future projects.