Abstract
Background
There are many pharmacologic therapies that are being used or considered for treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), with rapidly changing efficacy and safety evidence from trials.
Objective
Develop evidence-based, rapid, living guidelines intended to support patients, clinicians, and other healthcare professionals in their decisions about treatment and management of patients with COVID-19.
Methods
In March 2020, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) formed a multidisciplinary guideline panel of infectious disease clinicians, pharmacists, and methodologists with varied areas of expertise to regularly review the evidence and make recommendations about the treatment and management of persons with COVID-19. The process used a living guideline approach and followed a rapid recommendation development checklist. The panel prioritized questions and outcomes. A systematic review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature was conducted at regular intervals. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach was used to assess the certainty of evidence and make recommendations.
Results
Based on the most recent search conducted on May 31, 2022, the IDSA guideline panel has made 30 recommendations for the treatment and management of the following groups/populations: pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis, ambulatory with mild-to-moderate disease, hospitalized with mild-to-moderate, severe but not critical, and critical disease. As these are living guidelines, the most recent recommendations can be found online at: https://idsociety.org/COVID19guidelines.
Conclusions
At the inception of its work, the panel has expressed the overarching goal that patients be recruited into ongoing trials. Since then, many trials were done which provided much needed evidence for COVID-19 therapies. There still remain many unanswered questions as the pandemic evolved which we hope future trials can answer.
Contributor Information
Adarsh Bhimraj, Division of Infectious Diseases, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas.
Rebecca L Morgan, Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Department of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio.
Amy Hirsch Shumaker, Department of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio; VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System, Cleveland, Ohio.
Lindsey Baden, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
Vincent Chi Chung Cheng, Queen Mary Hospital, Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
Kathryn M Edwards, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee.
Jason C Gallagher, Department of Pharmacy Practice, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rajesh T Gandhi, Infectious Diseases Division, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
William J Muller, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois.
Mari M Nakamura, Antimicrobial Stewardship Program and Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children’s Hospital and Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
John C O’Horo, Division of Infectious Diseases, Joint Appointment Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
Robert W Shafer, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.
Shmuel Shoham, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
M Hassan Murad, Division of Public Health, Infectious Diseases and Occupational Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
Reem A Mustafa, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas.
Shahnaz Sultan, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis VA Healthcare System, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Yngve Falck-Ytter, Department of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio; VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System, Cleveland, Ohio.
Supplementary Material
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