The IQVIA COVID-19 Active Research Experience (CARE) UK-wide survey launched this week.

People across Wales are being especially encouraged to register ensuring the area’s COVID-19 experience is fully reflected in the research.

IQVIA CARE invites the public to volunteer to share their everyday experience after potential exposure to COVID-19 – and crucially to build understanding of the impact of previously unexplored factors. These factors include social and personal circumstances, ethnicity, age, and underlying health conditions. In addition, IQVIA CARE is seeking to establish the role of vitamins, herbal medicines and prescription medicines in symptom relief, or preventing recurrence of COVID-19 related illnesses.

People are encouraged to sign up to the IQVIA CARE survey at www.helpstopcovid19.com

The survey enables anyone within the UK over 18 years of age whether or not they have had COVID-19, whether or not they have been tested for COVID-19, to make a difference to UK and international COVID-19 real time research.

IQVIA CARE is an international public research survey, led by IQVIA, a global leader in clinical trials and real world evidence research. IQVIA is also delivering the UK COVID-19 treatment clinical trial, ACCORD, involving UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the National Institute for Health Research and partners in the pharma, biotech sector and the UK government.

The IQVIA CARE survey aims to:

• Capture COVID-19 in the UK community and record symptom severity and progression over time.
• Provide understanding of individuals at highest risk of developing serious consequences from exposure to COVID-19, for example, the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Communities and the elderly.
• Help understand the role of personal and social circumstances, non-prescription and prescription medications, and to learn more about whether herbal remedies, vitamins, and alternative medicines make the COVID-19 symptoms better or worse.
• Assess the impact of self-isolation and the UK lockdown strategy and crucially provide valuable data to inform the exit strategy on easing lockdown, and the National Health Service (NHS) response to any second wave of the virus.

Volunteers who join the IQVIA CARE survey can, in complete confidence, share basic demographic information, current symptoms, and some medical history. They will thereafter be periodically prompted to provide updated information about any symptoms and diagnosis status in order to create a worldwide picture of virus progression over time.

IQVIA CARE participants can – if they wish – consent to further follow-up, including taking part in additional clinical research, such as COVID-19 clinical trials of potential treatments that may ease symptoms – and potentially save lives.

IQVIA will apply decades of privacy protection expertise in handling personal health information for research purposes, employing a wide range of methods to secure, manage, and report information responsibly. IQVIA CARE received UK Ethics Approval and will employ a variety of processes, safeguards and controls in connection with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and other regulatory requirements.

Launching the IQVIA CARE Project in the UK, Tim Sheppard, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Northern Europe at IQVIA, said:

“By launching the IQVIA CARE population survey in the UK, alongside similar real time surveys in Europe and the USA, we’re inviting the public to come forward and help society learn more about COVID-19. We want to help identify the most effective treatments and understand any other factors that help lessen the toll of this virus, and the UK getting back on its feet as soon as possible.

“It is vital that Wales is fully represented to reflect the fact that different localities experience different patterns of COVID-19.

“We believe global collaboration through building registries like CARE, will help provide the critical missing insights to beat COVID-19. For IQVIA CARE to realise this, it needs people the length and breadth of the UK to sign up, so we can learn as much as possible, as soon as possible to save lives.”