An algorithm should help General Practitioners with prioritizing which persons should be vaccinated first. APH researchers developed an algorithm that estimates which groups have the highest risk of getting severe COVID-19 symptoms. The algorithm helps with identifying and selecting patients who should get the vaccine.

In the algorithm different potential predictor variables were used. Age, sex, chronic co-morbidities, obesity, and environmental properties were used to predict the risk of hospitalization and dying from the virus. This study shows that with the help of the algorithm, a vaccination coverage of 8% can lead to a reduction of 50% in hospitalization and deaths. Such a reduction could only be reached with a vaccination coverage of 50% if the vaccine strategy would be random.

APH researcher Ron Herings (professor in Pharmaco-epidemiology and Healthcare Optimization at Amsterdam UMC) and his team of researchers at the Amsterdam UMC, LUMC and the Radboud university medical center developed this algorithm. The COVID DAT NL consortium is a collaboration of STIZON, Medworq, Stichting Health Base and the national ROS-network, together with NHG/Expertdoc and Pharmapartners.

Read full article on Medrxiv.org.