Montreal is one of only a handful of places in Canada to have a post-COVID-19 clinic, where researchers are studying the complications of the deadly disease.
People who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 can register in the weeks after being tested. Researchers at the clinic want to follow any complications patients may be experiencing due to the virus.
Dr. Emilia Falcone is the clinic’s director and a lead researcher at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM).
“The objective is to follow patients who’ve had a post COVID-19 infection,” she told Global News during a tour of the site.
Patients undergo a battery of tests on site including the taking of blood and urine samples as well as measuring pulmonary strength and cardiovascular systems.
“What could be causing these complications so that we could get a sense of how how to better manage them,” Dr. Falcone said.
While overall caseloads are stabilizing in Quebec and the number of hospitalization rates is down, new variants of the coronavirus continue to be identified and that can complicate matters for researchers at the clinic.
“This could translate into patients having a new infection or maybe, more long term or more severe long term complications,” Dr. Falcone said.
So far, the clinic has seen five patients. However, it has the capacity to receive more than 500.
“It was something that was missing in Montreal, Quebec — having to follow people with post-COVID symptoms,” Danijela Bovan, a nurse with the IRCM, told Global News.
Researchers hope to share the information they obtain with others specialists in the field as well as with other post COVID-19 clinics across the country as they try to learn more about the virus.