Curating the Evidence About COVID-19 for Frontline Public Health and Clinical Care: The Novel Coronavirus Research Compendium

Abstract

The public health crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred a deluge of scientific research aimed at informing the public health and medical response to the pandemic. However, early in the pandemic, those working in frontline public health and clinical care had insufficient time to parse the rapidly evolving evidence and use it for decision-making. Academics in public health and medicine were well-placed to translate the evidence for use by frontline clinicians and public health practitioners. The Novel Coronavirus Research Compendium (NCRC), a group of >60 faculty and trainees across the United States, formed in March 2020 with the goal to quickly triage and review the large volume of preprints and peer-reviewed publications on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 and summarize the most important, novel evidence to inform pandemic response. From April 6 through December 31, 2020, NCRC teams screened 54 192 peer-reviewed articles and preprints, of which 527 were selected for review and uploaded to the NCRC website for public consumption. Most articles were peer-reviewed publications (n = 395, 75.0%), published in 102 journals; 25.1% (n = 132) of articles reviewed were preprints. The NCRC is a successful model of how academics translate scientific knowledge for practitioners and help build capacity for this work among students. This approach could be used for health problems beyond COVID-19, but the effort is resource intensive and may not be sustainable in the long term.

Data Velocity in HIV-Related Implementation Research: Estimating Time From Funding to Publication

“…Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for modeling population impact and benefit as well as exploring context and mechanisms through which results may be expected to translate across populations and settings provide roadmaps to decrease the time of evidence translation to end the HIV pandemic. 41,42…”

“…The speed of data dissemination and practice change witnessed in the COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the potential for more rapid translation processes. [38][39][40][41] Lessons learned from the pandemic in fast-tracked funding, rapid low-risk study approvals within institutional review boards, increased rapidity of publication by journals, and real-time data synthesis all demonstrate the potential for rapid impact when political will and funding are available. Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for modeling population impact and benefit as well as exploring context and mechanisms through which results may be expected to translate across populations and settings provide roadmaps to decrease the time of evidence translation to end the HIV pandemic.…”

“…Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for modeling population impact and benefit as well as exploring context and mechanisms through which results may be expected to translate across populations and settings provide roadmaps to decrease the time of evidence translation to end the HIV pandemic. 41,42 This analysis has several limitations. First, because identification of "the" primary research article from an award is subjective given that grants have multiple aims, we did not identify a single primary article per award; thus, it is possible that the timing of publication of those critical articles is overestimated or more likely underestimated given that articles reporting implementation outcomes and effectiveness may represent later stage publications.…”