Research on Post-COVID Effects Underway in Fort Wayne
(stock image courtesy: Pixabay/Konstantin Kolosov)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indiana University School of Medicine-Fort Wayne and the Parkview Mirro Center for Research and Innovation have announced plans to examine the underlying causes and potential treatments for long-term symptoms of COVID-19.
The research will be conducted through the new Parkview Post-COVID Clinic, which opened last week.
The team will pay special attention to patients having symptoms of the disease for weeks or months following infection.
“Symptoms such as headaches, brain fog, sensory disturbances, fatigue and loss of taste and smell are linked to inflammation of the brain,” said Dr. Fen-Lei Chang, IUSM-FW regional campus dean and professor of neurology. “Through this collaboration, we will gain a better understanding of the cause of the symptoms our long-hauler patients experience, and therefore, find more treatment options to provide relief.”
Chang says the teams will primarily focus on neuroscience research, as many of the lingering symptoms appear to be neurological in nature.
The partners say they plan to use the research and clinical data to create a predictive model that can serve as decision support for providers.
“We plan to leverage our teams’ research expertise in immunology and data science to push care forward,” said Dr. Tammy Toscos, director of health services and informatics research, Parkview Health. “We will also work directly with clinicians in the Parkview Post-COVID Clinic to ensure our research findings are both rooted in clinical truth and can be immediately translated to improve patient care.”