Outpatient Clinic for Long-Term Effects of COVID-19, Paciuksenkatu

Treatment at the Outpatient Clinic for Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 requires a physician’s referral. The referral criteria are:

• Proven covid-19 infection (either a positive PCR or antibody test result or a covid-19 infection that required inpatient care).
• The symptoms have lasted at least three months.

From the beginning of 2023, we have also accepted patients whose COVID-19 infection was confirmed with a home test, as laboratory PCR testing reduced significantly in late 2022.

The referrals will be sent to HUS Physiatry. When a referral arrives, we will assess the treatment needs.

When you receive a letter about your appointment, it will include a preliminary information form to fill out prior to your first visit at the clinic. The preliminary information form has questions about your symptoms, your work ability and functional ability, and psychological surveys to assess your well-being.

During the first appointment, our doctor will interview and examine you. They will also direct you to further examinations and specialist’s consultations that may be needed. Your doctor will create a treatment plan with you.

There is not yet a lot of research available on the long-term effects of COVID-19 infections, which makes conducting research important. We conduct medical research at the outpatient clinic as active participants in the international university hospital network. We invite patients to join a cohort study in which information is collected from the preliminary information form, at clinic appointments, and with follow-up calls and online forms at 3, 6, and 12 months. Taking part in a study is voluntary.

Common long-term effects of COVID-19 infection include fatigue, problems with memory and concentration, headache, cough, difficulty to breath, arrhythmia sensations, muscle pain and other long-term pain. Your treatment at our outpatient clinic will be symptomatic and rehabilitative.

Our treatment methods are based on instructions from the World Health Organization (WHO), previous research-based knowledge on post-infection symptoms, and experiences from long COVID units in the United Kingdom and Sweden.

All our patients will receive psychoeducation, which means guidance and support to manage their symptoms. Other possible treatment methods include:

• Medication to relieve symptoms
• Physiotherapist's support, measuring functional ability, and exercise guidance
• Psychologist's support sessions
• Online therapy for long-term adverse physical symptoms and other online therapies offered by HUS 
• Various self-care programs
• Group rehabilitation

Our multi-professional treatment team will monitor how your rehabilitation proceeds via phone calls and, as needed, clinic visits. If need be, we can draw up a statement regarding your rehabilitation needs.

The cohort study performed at the outpatient clinic aims to investigate the symptom profile in long-term effects of COVID-19 and how the symptoms affect work and functional ability, quality of life, sleep and mood. We are looking for information on the prognosis of the symptoms and the factors that affect them. The study also includes a brief neurocognitive test to test the patient's memory, alertness, concentration, and attention. The patient's physical capacity will also be examined.

Our goal is to investigate the root reasons for long-term effects of COVID-19. Our research team has networked with researchers from the University of Helsinki who are conducting research on immunological and genetic factors in illnesses. The outpatient clinic’s patients will be asked for their consent for biobank samples that enable future research on causes of the illness.

The outpatient clinic have also launched a self-care study, with subjects randomly compared in three groups. In this randomized controlled experiment, two self-care programs and ordinary outpatient care are compared with each other in the sense that ordinary care is given to all three groups but two of them use the self-care programs in addition. 

Our outpatient clinic organizes training for healthcare professionals, gives consultations and networks with other healthcare units that treat long-term effects of COVID-19.