Fridolin Steinbeis, Charlotte Thibeault, Sarah Steinbrecher, Yvonne Ahlgrimm, Ira an Haack, Dietrich August, Beate Balzuweit, Carla Bellinghausen, Sarah Berger, Irina Chaplinskaya-Sobol, Oliver Cornely, Patrick Doeblin, Matthias Endres, Claudia Fink, Carsten Finke, Sandra Frank, Sabine Hanß, Tim Hartung, Johannes Christian Hellmuth, Susanne Herold, Peter Heuschmann, Jan Heyckendorf, Ralf Heyder, Stefan Hippenstiel, Wolfgang Hoffmann, Sebastian Ulrich Kelle, Philipp Knape, Philipp Koehler, Lucie Kretzler, David Manuel Leistner, Jasmin Lienau, Roberto Lorbeer, Bettina Lorenz-Depiereux, Constanze Dorothea Lüttke, Knut Mai, Uta Merle, Lil Antonia Meyer-Arndt, Olga Miljukov, Maximilian Muenchhoff, Moritz Müller-Plathe, Julia Neuhann, Hannelore Neuhauser, Alexandra Nieters, Christian Otte, Daniel Pape, Rafaela Maria Pinto, Christina Pley, Annett Pudszuhn, Philipp Reuken, Siegberg Rieg, Petra Ritter, Gernot Rohde, Maria Rönnefarth, Michael Ruzicka, Jens Schaller, Anne Schmidt, Sein Schmidt, Verena Schwachmeyer, Georg Schwanitz, Werner Seeger, Dana Stahl, Nicole Stobäus, Hans Christian Stubbe, Norbert Suttorp, Bettina Temmesfeld, Sylvia Thun, Paul Triller, Frederik Trinkmann, Istvan Vadasz, Heike Valentin, Maria Vehreschild, Christof von Kalle, Marie von Lilienfeld-Toal, Joachim Weber, Tobias Welte, Christian Wildberg, Robert Wizimirski, Saskia Zvork, Leif Erik Sander, Janne Vehreschild, Thomas Zoller, Florian Kurth & Martin Witzenrath

Background
The severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic causes a high burden of acute and long-term morbidity and mortality worldwide despite global efforts in containment, prophylaxis, and therapy. With unprecedented speed, the global scientific community has generated pivotal insights into the pathogen and the host response evoked by the infection. However, deeper characterization of the pathophysiology and pathology remains a high priority to reduce morbidity and mortality of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Methods
NAPKON-HAP is a multi-centered prospective observational study with a long-term follow‐up phase of up to 36 months post-SARS-CoV-2 infection. It constitutes a central platform for harmonized data and biospecimen for inter-disciplinary characterization of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection and long-term outcomes of diverging disease severities of hospitalized patients.

Results
Primary outcome measures include clinical scores and quality of life assessment captured during hospitalization and at outpatient follow-up visits to assess acute and chronic morbidity. Secondary measures include results of biomolecular and immunological investigations and assessment of organ-specific involvement during and post-COVID-19 infection.NAPKON-HAP constitutes a national platform to provide accessibility and usability of the comprehensive data and biospecimen collection to global research.

Conclusion
NAPKON-HAP establishes a platform with standardized high-resolution data and biospecimen collection of hospitalized COVID-19 patients of different disease severities in Germany. With this study, we will add significant scientific insights and provide high-quality data to aid researchers to investigate COVID-19 pathophysiology, pathology, and chronic morbidity.

Infection. 52, 93–104 (2024)