Lessons From a Rapid Project Management Exercise in the Time of Pandemic: Methodology for a Global COVID-19 VIRUS Registry Database

BACKGROUND The rapid emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic globally collapsed healthcare organizations worldwide. Incomplete knowledge of best practices, progression of the disease, and its impact could result in fallible care. Data on symptoms and advancement of the SARS-CoV-2 virus leading to critical care admission has not been captured or communicated well between international organizations experiencing the same impact from the virus. This led to the expedited need for establishing international communication and data collection on the critical care patients admitted with COVID-19. OBJECTIVE Developing a global registry to collect patient data in the critical care setting was imperative to analyze and ameliorate outcomes. METHODS A prospective, observational global registry database was put together to record extensive de-identified clinical information for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. RESULTS Project management was crucial for prompt implementation of the registry for synchronization, improving efficiency, increasing innovation, and fostering global collaboration for valuable data collection. Basing the Society of Critical Care Discovery VIRUS: COVID-19 Registry would compile data for crucial longitudinal outcomes for disease, treatment, and research. Agile project management approach expedited establishing the registry in 15 days and submission of IRB agreement for 250 participating sites. There has been enrollment of sites every month with a total of 306 sites from 28 countries and 64114 patients enrolled (as of June 7, 2021). CONCLUSIONS This article addresses project management lessons in a time of crisis which can be a precept for rapid project management for a large-scale health care data registry. We aim to discuss the approach and methodology for establishing the registry, the challenges faced, and the factors contributing to successful outcomes.