Prognostic Models for COVID-19 Care

There has been a proliferation of COVID-19 clinical prediction models (CPMs) reported in the literature across health systems, but the validity and potential generalizability of these models to other settings is unknown. Generally, most hospitals (and systems) do not have a sufficient number of cases (and outcomes) to develop models fit to their local population, and predictor variables are not uniformly and reliably obtained across systems. Therefore, pooling and harmonizing data resources and assessing generalizability across different sites is urgently needed to create tools that may help support decision making across settings. In addition, since best practices are rapidly evolving over time (e.g., proning, minimizing paralytics, lung-protective volumes, remdesivir, dexamethasone or other treatments), updating and recalibrating these CPMs is crucially important. In the current PCORI Methods project, the investigators developed a CPM evaluation and updating framework including both conventional and novel performance measures. The investigators will use this framework to evaluate COVID-19 prognostic models in the largest cohort of COVID-19 patients examined to date, spanning 2 datasets from very different settings. As the COVID-19 pandemic affects different regions, with subsequent waves expected, identifying the most accurate, robust and generalizable prognostic tools is needed to guide patient-centered decision making across diverse populations and settings.