Highlighted Project: My COVID Diary

A patient experience research project

MyCovidDiary was a research project launched early in the COVID-19 pandemic to better understand patient experiences and clinical manifestations of COVID-19. Using a mobile app-based platform, participants responded regularly to structured questionnaires and created open-ended journal entries about their experiences with the disease and its progression for up to 12 months after their infection.

Over 16,000 COVID-19-positive patients from across the Providence health system joined the study in its first two years. This rich collection of first-person accounts provides a valuable resource for understanding the disease, its symptoms, and progression, and helping improve the delivery of holistic patient-centered care for COVID-19 patients during infection and recovery

The Providence Center for Outcomes Research & Education (CORE) is helping study and publish these patient-reported outcomes, focusing on:

  • Describing patient-reported outcomes for fully vaccinated COVID-19 patients.
  • Exploring social-emotional experiences and support needed for COVID-19 patients.
  • Classifying patient-reported long COVID-19 experiences across physical, mental, and social wellbeing.

This work was made possible by funding from Providence and the Providence St. Joseph Foundation, in partnership with Providence’s Clinical Analytics team.

Research approach

  • A patient-centered project leveraging insights and experiences from a large sampling of Providence patients.
  • Structured questionnaires and open-ended text responses (i.e. journal entries) to prospectively monitor the patient experience for individuals infected with COVID-19.
  • Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the survey and journal entry data, respectively.

What’s next

  • CORE continues working to analyze and disseminate findings from this research.
  • Additional My COVID Diary related research projects will be announced in 2023.

Research publication

Patient-Reported Outcomes for Fully Vaccinated COVID-19 Patients Over 6 Weeks: The Experiences of Clinical Breakthrough Cases

Additional resources & links

Research partners

  • Providence Research Network
  • Providence Health Research Accelerator
  • Ari Robicsek, M.D., chief analytics and research officer, Providence
  • Bill Wright, PhD, vice president of health innovation research, Providence

For more information, contact core@providence.org