Nation-wide Cross-sectional Survey on Current Pharmacological Practices in Severe COVID-19

The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 has proven to be the greatest medical emergency of recent times. The response of the medical world to this crisis has been unprecedented. The healthcare workers are caring for patients at the frontline while, scientists and researchers are discovering vaccines or effective treatment in shortest possible duration. The scale and effect of pandemic in India, being second most populous country of the world is enormous. As of December 30, 2020, India has crossed 10 million cases and 148,000 deaths from COVID-19. India has second most number of cases only after United States of America (USA) and with third largest number of deaths. The Ministry of Health and family Welfare (Under Government of India) has given periodical clinical management guidelines, with last updated on July 5, 2020 (version 5).

In adults, severe COVID-19 is defined as presence of any of the following dyspnea, a respiratory rate of 30 or more breaths per minute, a blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) of 93% or less, a ratio of the partial pressure of arterial oxygen to the fraction of inspired oxygen (Pao2:Fio2) of less than 300 mm Hg, or infiltrates in more than 50% of the lung field while Critical COVID-19 is defined as presence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis or septic shock. The mortality in critical COVID-19 is reported to be 25-49% in different studies. The evidence on the therapeutics for COVID-19 has evolved significantly in last few months after initial use of re-purposed drugs. There are no recent guidelines available based on the current evidence for clinical management of COVID-19.

The investigators are planning for nation-wide multicentre cross-sectional survey on understanding participating physicians practices on choice of different pharmacotherapeutic agents available in India as of January 2021.

The objective of this study is to understand the current practices of participating physicians in the management of adult patients with severe COVID-19 in India and to determine future priorities.