The Wisconsin Partnership Program has awarded a two-year grant for a total of $300,000 to support analysis of Wisconsin data from the COVID EHR Cohort at the University of Wisconsin (CEC-UW).
In April 2020, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) invited the University of Wisconsin to reach out to health systems heavily impacted by COVID-19, inviting them to participate in the CEC-UW project to better understand the course, treatments, and outcomes of COVID-19 in the United States.
The CEC-UW project is compiling information from the electronic health records (EHR) of more than one million COVID-19 patients at 21 health systems across the United States. This includes nearly 20,000 patients from Wisconsin during the first two years of the pandemic (February 1, 2020, through January 31, 2022). It is the second largest COVID-19 dataset in the world.
The new grant from the Wisconsin Partnership Program will allow the CEC-UW team to:
- Analyze the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 among racial and ethnic minorities and vulnerable populations, comparing Wisconsin to the rest of the nation, including African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, and patients diagnosed with depression and anxiety.
- Compare COVID-19 outcomes among UW Health data versus the other 20 health systems.
- Examine associations between risk variables, treatments, vaccine status, and COVID outcomes including death, ICU admission, intubation, hospital days, rehospitalization, and long COVID.
“We are so grateful to the Wisconsin Partnership Program for its support of this Wisconsin-based analysis,” said Principal Investigator and UW-CTRI Director Dr. Michael Fiore. “CEC-UW provides an incredible opportunity to advance the science of COVID-19 with a focus on improving the health of our state. Now, we get to offer insights into the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations in Wisconsin, forge new partnerships with UW scientists, foster development of junior investigators, and broaden the use of this unique data.”
CEC-UW builds on UW’s expertise and national leadership in tobacco control, cancer prevention, and EHR integration. This grant will give that work a Wisconsin focus.