Secure data from more than 14,000 adults who participate in National Institutes of Health (NIH) observational research on long COVID are now available to authorized researchers through BioData Catalyst (BDC). BDC is a cloud-based ecosystem developed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the NIH, to accelerate research on heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders.

 

The research on long COVID—broadly defined as signs, symptoms or conditions that persist or develop for at least four weeks after an infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID—is provided through the NIH Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (NIH RECOVER) Initiative.

 

By giving researchers access to secure data, analysis tools and resources, the BDC ecosystem aims to spur scientific innovation, collaboration and discovery, while providing a platform for sharing data and validating results. The addition of RECOVER data to BDC can help investigators identify and explore long COVID connections that may benefit from or inform future studies.

 

Authorized researchers can now request access to a subset of data on adults in the observational RECOVER cohort. These data include information from more than 92,000 study visits collected between October 29, 2021, and September 15, 2023, at 79 locations throughout the United States. New RECOVER data, including data from other studies, will be added to BDC at regular intervals.

 

As investigators seek to better understand, diagnose and treat long COVID, many critical questions remain. By making RECOVER data more accessible by adding it to a central ecosystem, experts aim to find answers sooner.