Discovery VIRUS COVID-19 Registry

A global COVID-19 registry that tracks ICU and hospital care patterns in near real time

Viral Infection and Respiratory Illness Universal Study (VIRUS) is a prospective, cross-sectional, observational study and registry of all eligible adult and pediatric patients who are admitted to a hospital. There is no intervention or patient interaction. Only de-identified data are used for analysis.

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04323787

Primary Aims

Create a real-time COVID-19 registry of current ICU and hospital care patterns to allow evaluation of safety and observational effectiveness of COVID-19 practices
Determine practice variations across hospitals

Hypotheses

The registry will be essential for near-real-time observational comparative effectiveness studies to determine effective treatment strategies and/or provide meaningful hypotheses for clinical trials.

Institutional Review Board: Waiver of Consent

A waiver of informed consent for data collection is being requested for this study from participating sites. No patients will be contacted, but clinicians participating in the study will be surveyed for feedback and satisfaction. For any questions, contact Vishakha Kumar.

STOP-VIRUS ICU Learning Collaborative

ICUs participating in the VIRUS Registry may also be among the 20 sites participating in the STOP-VIRUS collaborative. For more information about this network of ICUs, its leaders and participants, and the learning material being developed, click here.

Learn More

VIRUS in the News

Press releases and news articles highlighting VIRUS activities.

Learn More

Recent Publications

Association of Antibiotics With the Outcomes in COVID-19 Pneumonia Patients With Elevated PCT Levels
Raavi L, Isha S, Jonna S, et al. Respir Med. 2024 Sep;231:107697.
Program Type: VIRUS, DISCOVERY

Racial Disparities in Oxygenation Support for COVID-19: An Analysis From the SCCM Discovery Network Virus Registry
Douglas IS, Bui TA, Hansen LH, et al. Poster presented at ATS 2024 Conference. May 22, 2024. San Diego, CA.
Program Type: VIRUS, DISCOVERY

Association of Co-infections With Outcomes Across COVID-19 Variants
Beltran C, Perry J, Boethel C, et al, et al. Poster presented at ATS 2024 Conference. May 20, 2024. San Diego, CA.
Program Type: VIRUS, DISCOVERY NONE, STOP-VIRUS

Early Empiric Antibiotic Use In COVID-19 Patients: Results from The International VIRUS Registry
Sili U, Tekin A, Bilgin H, et al. Int J Infect Dis. 2024 Mar;140:39-48.
Program Type: VIRUS, DISCOVERY

Biomarker-Concordant Steroid Administration in Severe Coronavirus Disease-2019
Tekin A, Domecq JP, Morales DJV, et al; Society of Critical Care Medicine Discovery Viral Infection and Respiratory Illness Universal Study (VIRUS): COVID-19 Registry Investigator Group. J Intensive Care Med. 2023 Nov;38(11):1003-1014. doi: 10.1177/08850666231177200. Epub 2023 May 24.PMID: 37226483
Program Type: VIRUS, DISCOVERY

VIRUS Investigators

Discovery, the Critical Care Research Network, is leading the efforts for this global COVID-19 registry.

Rahul Kashyap, MBA, MD

VIRUS Principal Investigator

Mayo Clinic
Rochester, Minnesota, USA

Allan J. Walkey, MD, MSc

VIRUS Co-Principal Investigator

Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Juan Pablo Domecq Garces, MD

VIRUS Co-Principal Investigator

Mayo Clinic Foundation
Rochester, Minnesota, USA

Vishakha Kumar, MD, MBA

VIRUS Co-Principal Investigator

Discovery, the Critical Care Research Network
Society of Critical Care Medicine

VIRUS Ancillary Studies

Ancillary Proposal Review Process

Submission process: Ancillary study proposals may be submitted for a subset of de-identified data for research purposes by investigators of participating sites in the VIRUS study. Proposals are submitted via an online submission portal. Submitted proposals are reviewed by the Discovery VIRUS Publication Review Workgroup for approval and feedback.

Datasets may be made available to outside groups (nonparticipating sites and investigators) after initial publication of the data by study principal investigators within 12 months of study conclusion. A Data Use Agreement must be in place for this type of request.

Review Process: The Discovery VIRUS Publication Review Workgroup will assign two to three reviewers per proposal. The timeline for approval is up to 30 days.

The proposal submission portal is now open. Access the submission portal.

Information for Investigators

Any conflict of interest with the ancillary study proposal must be disclosed by reviewers and investigators.
Ancillary study proposals are kept blinded from the VIRUS core investigator group.
SCCM, including the VIRUS core investigators group, has first right of publication on the dataset for research hypotheses outlined for the VIRUS Study.
Study participants can serve on the writing group with the VIRUS core investigators team if their ancillary study ideas overlap or align with the VIRUS overall project aims.
National and international collaboration on ancillary proposal submission is encouraged.
Ancillary proposal approval and data sharing depends on data quality and completion of the investigator’s own site data for the VIRUS study.

Ancillary Study Approval Process

Feedback on proposals will be shared with investigators. The Discovery VIRUS Publication Review Workgroup makes rapid review of proposals a priority. Once approved, investigators receive access to the de-identified subset of data from the VIRUS dataset.