Dr Louise Thomas, Senior Lecturer and member of the Research Centre for Optimal Health, is working on COVERSCAN, the first COVID-19 recovery study launched by Perspectum, a digital technologies company that focuses on helping clinicians to provide better care for patients with liver disease.
COVERSCAN is the first study to map how COVID-19 impacts the health of multiple organs and identify at-risk features for the virus, with detailed cross-sectional imaging and genetics studies.
The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence and degree of organ damage in patients recovering from COVID-19 using MRI’s. It will use outpatient MRI facilities and blood tests, basic physical measurements such as height, wight and blood pressure, and online questionnaires.
The COVERSCAN study aims to enrol 507 patients over the next two years at the Mayo Clinic in London and at Perspectum’s outpatient facility in Oxford.
Perspectum provides digital technologies that help clinicians to provide better care for patients with liver disease. Dr Thomas has previously worked with Perspectum on a study that identified a gene as a potential target for drugs in order to prevent liver disease.
Dr Thomas said: "Perspectum's COVERSCAN study in combination with the UK Biobank data represent an unparalleled opportunity to understand the underlying mechanism that underpin medium and long-term health impacts of exposure to COVID-19 and point to new avenues of how best to protect the general population from the most insidious effects of this pandemic."
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