DGPM expands CRONOS study in cooperation with Data4Life

CRONOS+ researches the mental health of pregnant women with COVID-19 as part of the multi-centric CRONOS registry study.

Kiel / Dresden / Potsdam, Oktober 28, 2021. The German Society for Perinatal Medicine (DGPM), as a scientific professional society, is interested in better understanding the effects of a COVID-19 infection on the psychological well-being of affected pregnant women. Therefore, DGPM has partnered with Data4Life to launch the CRONOS+ study. Data4Life is a nonprofit organization aiming to improve health care and research through technology and data. For the project CRONOS+, Data4Life is providing patients with a digital platform where they can share their experiences with COVID-19 during and up to six weeks after pregnancy.

The DGPM has been investigating the effects of coronavirus infection on maternal and neonatal health within the registry study "Covid-19 Related Obstetric and Neonatal Outcome Study in Germany" (CRONOS) since spring 2020. Currently, data are available from more than 3000 women who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy. With this information, the DGPM can provide necessary recommendations for the treatment and counseling of pregnant women and their newborns in Germany.

CRONOS+ is a relevant subcomponent of the CRONOS study that provides information on the psychological impact of Covid-19 infections. All pregnant women who have tested positive for COVID-19 can participate in CRONOS+. After registering with Data4Life, participants answer an initial digital questionnaire and subsequently answer additional questions once or twice a month about the impact of the pandemic on pregnancy-related feelings and care during pregnancy and the postpartum period.

Across Germany, more than 150 clinics are recruiting participants for the CRONOS registry study. In addition to these clinics, gynecologists in private practices are now called upon to inform their pregnant patients with positive COVID-19 results about the possibility of participating in CRONOS+.

"By directly interviewing pregnant women infected with COVID-19, we are giving the women a voice," said Prof. Dr. Ulrich Pecks, Head of Obstetrics at Kiel University Hospital and DGPM research representative. "It is important for us to be able to assess the psychological effects of COVID-19. That is why we have expanded the registry to include the CRONOS+ survey," explained Prof. Dr. Mario Rüdiger, Head of the Division of Neonatology and Pediatric Intensive Care Medicine at Dresden University Hospital and founding director of the Center for Feto-neonatal Health at the Technical University of Dresden. For decades, the DGPM has been committed to the health of mothers and children. "For this reason, it was important for us to investigate the effects of Covid-19 on pregnant women and their newborns" agreed the two DGPM research officers.

"By collecting subjective information from the people affected, so-called patient-reported outcomes, clinically collected data can be usefully supplemented and lead to even better knowledge about individual diseases," said Cornelius Remschmidt, MD, epidemiologist, and chief medical officer at Data4Life. "The individual participant’s wellness data gives us valuable insights for COVID-19 research and treatment development."

About the German Society for Perinatal Medicine
The DGPM is the oldest and by far the largest professional society for the interdisciplinary field of "Perinatal Medicine" (obstetrics/neonatology and neighboring fields) in the German-speaking world. It was founded by the pioneer of perinatal medicine, Prof. Erich Saling, in Berlin. Since 1967, the Society's major congresses have been held every two years.

About Data4Life
D4L data4life gGmbH is a nonprofit organization with over 100 employees at locations in Europe and Singapore, originating as a research project at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute for Digital Engineering gGmbH (under the name Gesundheitscloud) and funded by the Hasso Plattner Foundation. Data4Life wants to make a meaningful contribution to improving healthcare by developing and operating an IT infrastructure for the secure provision ("data donation"), analysis and management of health data and by applying algorithms to the research of diseases and evaluation of treatment methods. Data4Life was certified in July 2019 by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) as ISO 27001 compliant on the basis of “IT-Grundschutz.” D4L data4life gGmbH was founded at the end of 2017 with headquarters in Potsdam, Germany. The managing director is Christian-Cornelius Weiß.
More details on www.data4life.care.