Welcome to the PREPARE project page!

Pandemic Respiratory Emergency Preparedness And REsponse (PREPARE) Project

• The primary aim of this project is to address critical evidence gaps regarding the burden and characteristics of respiratory infections in the post–COVID-19 pandemic era.

  To accomplish this aim, the project will pursue the following objectives:

• Primary Objective: To identify and characterize illness among patients age ≥50 years with an underlying chronic lung condition presenting to U.S. urban EDs who are being admitted to the hospital for an acute respiratory illness. The overall goal is to determine the prevalence and burden of existing and emerging respiratory pathogens in this population.

• Secondary Objectives:

  • Identify factors associated with respiratory pathogen-specific infections.

  • Assess differences in clinical presentations and factors associated with a negative respiratory pathogen PCR test.

  • Describe severe outcomes (ICU admission, ventilator use, length of stay, in-hospital death) by respiratory pathogen and in patients without a pathogen identified.

  • Describe antiviral prescribing patterns overall and by pathogen.

  • Estimate healthcare burden attributable to pathogen-specific illness using national cost weights.

    We are still working on updates to this page and will be adding all project materials here in the coming weeks! Please email idnet@ucla.edu if you have questions in the meantime!