ECMOCARD study to combat COVID-19

The Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for 2019 novel Coronavirus Acute Respiratory Disease (ECMOCARD) study is a multi-centre international study, conducted in all collaborating hospitals/ICU-based research networks in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand (APELSO in collaboration with centres within the SPRINT-SARI and ISARIC Networks), along with Europe, North and South America. The target population are COVID-19 patients requiring admission to ICU, Mechanical Ventilation and/or ECMO, to characterise:

1. Incidence of ICU admission, need for non-invasive/invasive MV and ECMO

2. Risk factors, clinical features and severity of respiratory failure

3. ECMO technical characteristics & duration of the run

4. Complications and ICU/Hospital survival; and

5. Requirements/time for approvals in participating network regions

AIMS

As the number of COVID-19 cases rapidly increase, the ECMOCARD study is leading the way in gathering ICU data from across the globe. There is no ‘textbook answer’ for how ICU specialists need to treat patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms, as we are in uncharted territory. Through collating and analysing data from 100+ hospital sites, this study will develop strategies to guide the international ICU community in how to best treat those with severe COVID-19 symptoms and save lives. The overall goal of the ECMOCARD study is to characterize clinical features about the epidemiology, clinical course of COVID-19 infection, severity of respiratory failure, type of respiratory support, details of ECMO support, ICU and hospital survival.