Objectives
COVID-19 is an emerging, rapidly evolving condition that challenges emergency departments and the clinicians who are fighting in the front lines throughout the world. With regard to these worrisome circumstances, the global collaborative research platform COVID-EM.org was installed in April 2020. The working platform COVID-EM.org was inaugurated by the Emergency Department of the University Hospital of Cologne and closely collaborates with the Lean European Open Survey on SARS-CoV-2 Infected Patients (LEOSS) and Kidneyinfection.org (a global platform for emerging pathogens leading to kidney failure including SARS-CoV-2).

To enable emergency medicine-based research, the Registry for COVID-19 in the Emergency Room (ReCovER) collects data on epidemiology, pre-existing prognostic factors, as well as diagnostic and treatment approaches taken in the emergency departments in Europe and around the globe. Anonymous data collection is guaranteed and, thus, informed consent does not have to be obtained. By December 2020 more than 650 cases from six university hospitals across Germany have been entered into the registry and are analyzed collaboratively.