Health Care Providers Exposed to Covid-19: A Global Survey

Introduction: As of May 18, 2020, the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19 has resulted in nearly 5 million infections in more than 150 countries worldwide resulting in more than 300,000 deaths. Worldwide several thousands of HCPs have been infected and hundreds of fatalities have been reported. We have designed this global survey so that we can quickly learn the information critical to protecting health care providers. 

 AIMS of the Study: The objectives of this global survey are to:

1. Determine the risk factors for the development of COVID 19 among HCPs exposed to Covid-19 infected individuals.
2. Evaluate the efficacy of preventive measures against COVID-19 being utilized by HCPs

Study Design and Methods: A questionnaire in survey form using SurveyMonkey.

Data Collection: The categories of data that will be collected include: demographic data ( e.g. age, sex ), provider role and practice type, PPE availability and compliance, Drug prophylaxis if any against Covid-19, medical conditions and treatments affecting susceptibility to Covid-19; flu virus and Covid-19 testing results and information about whether HCP developed Covid-19 infection and if so severity and treatment details. 

Anticipated Duration of Study: 12 months. 

Risks/Discomfort: Some questions might cause emotional distress.  However, survey respondents are free to skip any questions, including those they are not comfortable answering. 

Potential Benefits: Knowledge gained from this survey may enable us to identify factors that affect the risk of transmission of Covid-19 to HCPs. If as anticipated, the Covid-19 pandemic lasts for several months, information gained from this survey may potentially be used to reduce the risk of transmission of Covid-19 to HCPs at risk of exposure. 

Confidentiality: no PHI will be recorded or collected.  IP addresses will not be collected. Email addresses if collected, will be delinked from survey responses.

Privacy: The survey will be collected using the SurveyMonkey platform. SurveyMonkey is GDPR compliant. Please read more about SurveyMonkeys’s Privacy policy here and your rights under privacy laws here.

Follow-Up and Record Retention:  Survey participants will get an email every two weeks, requesting them to update their survey responses.

Questions/Concerns about the survey: For questions/concerns about this survey, you can contact the Investigator, Dr. Gratias Mundakel at covid2020survey@gmail.com or the Biomedical Research Alliance of New York (BRANY)Institutional Review Board at 1-516-318-6877 or  www.branyirb.com/concerns-about-research. 

A summary of results from this survey will be published at www.thecovidsurvey.com