Special Chinese Medicine Out-patient Programme for Discharged COVID-19 Patients

Special Chinese Medicine Out-patient Programme for Discharged COVID-19 Patients: An Observational Study

According to the ongoing observational studies and the Chinese Medicine practice guideline for COVID-19 patients, the discharged patients with COVID-19 still exhibits certain clinical symptoms such as fatigue, poor appetite, short of breath, palpation, and poor sleep, which could be recognized as two main Patterns in Chinese Medicine, Qi Deficiency of Lung and Spleen and Qi & Yin Deficiency. Based on this, pulmonary rehabilitation to improve lung function upon discharged was proposed. Therefore, even patients with COVID-19 were discharged from hospitals, there are symptoms with significant clinical syndromes in Chinese Medicine perspectives. These symptoms, in terms of syndrome, which could link with the body constitutions, could be due to pre-COVID-19 infection, suffering from infection, or a consequence of post-infection.

This observational study is a rehabilitation programme to elucidate i) whether body constitution is linking with the infection of COVID-19; ii) whether TCM can help the recovery of discharged COVID-19 patients.

This is an observational multi-centered study that will be conducted in the government subsidized tri-partite CM out-patient clinics (Chinese Medicine Clinic cum Training and Research Centres, "CMCTRs").

The study contains two parts as follows:

1. Retrospective Syndrome Survey: Retrospective information will be collected from participants using semi-structured interview and measuring the baseline body constitution before the rehabilitation treatment under the Programme, with the self-developed Body Constitutions Questionnaire.
2. TCM therapeutic assessment: The improvement of clinical symptoms and the status of body constitutions will be periodically evaluated.

Clinical CM Diagnostic Pattern & clinical characteristics assessments, lung function tests, quality of life and no. of western medical consultations will be assessed at each visit for 9 months. Both retrospective and prospective assessments will be done for those participants who have already joined the Rehabilitation Program in CMCTRs.

Sample Size: Estimated at 150 participants.

Treatment of the Rehabilitation Program in CMCTRs:

The treatment is based on individual Chinese Medicine syndrome and clinical symptoms based on the Chinese Medicine practice guideline for COVID-19 patients. Two main Chinese medicine syndromes for patients recovered from COVID-19 with the recommended prescriptions will be included in the Rehabilitation Program.

the participants will receive three months individualized-Chinese herbal medicine treatment in CMCTRs. After the three months treatment, they are free to either continue another three-month treatment or enter into the follow-up period. Each participant will be assessed every month during the treatment and three months after treatment as follow-up.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participants under the COVID-19 Rehabilitation Program who have been previously diagnosed to be infected with COVID-19 and discharged from local hospitals after treatment with western medicine, with negative results from COVID-19 virus detection.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Participants will be excluded if they have one or more of the followings: 1) inability to communicate (e.g. cognitive impairment); 2) history of CHM allergies; 3) incompetent in giving consent.