Clinical Registries Could Improve Influenza Like Illness and COVID-19 Surveillance

Abstract

Capacity for tracking COVID-19 prevalence patterns is hampered by insufficient data, particularly from rural and small communities. The PRIME Registry holds data for 5.4 million patients in 47 states who made 638,983 Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) visits in 2019, mirroring CDC’s ILINet temporal patterns but with higher volume and greater rural penetration. Clinical data registries are viable partners that could fill gaps for epidemic sentinel functions and have rich patient data which may identify factors predictive of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality.