SCOTTSBLUFF - When COVID-19 emerged in the U.S. roughly five months ago, doctors had to quickly figure out how to treat those infected with the virus that causes the illness, particularly those who became critically ill.

To that end, researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and clinical partner Nebraska Medicine have joined 350-plus medical centers in 48 countries in a study intended to help supply intensive care clinicians with the most up-to-date information so they can improve patient outcomes.

What researchers are trying to decipher, said Thompson, an assistant professor of anesthesiology, are the factors that lead to critical illness in COVID-19 patients and how such patients’ illnesses progress from the time they’re first hospitalized until they require critical care.

Further, they will be looking at which patients progress to treatment with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, a form of life support that partially replaces heart and lung function.

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