WNY's Long COVID Recovery Center
The UBMD Long COVID Recovery Center is a multidisciplinary effort that aims to evaluate and provide support to those affected by Long COVID.
The UBMD Long COVID Recovery Center provides care for those with Long COVID and connects those who have participated in the Long COVID Registry to accessible health care opportunities and resources. To be scheduled at the Recovery Center, individuals strongly encouraged to complete the Long COVID Registry. Completing the registry allows providers to have a better understanding of your experience with long COVID prior to your appointment.
What is the Long COVID Registry?
The registry is a survey, or form, to be completed by those who have or think they may have Long COVID.
The registry information submitted will help clinical researchers understand long COVID in our community. The registry is part of a clinical research study through the University at Buffalo, but also allows providers at the UBMD Long COVID Recovery Center to have a better understanding of your experience with long COVID prior to your appointment.
When you arrive at your first appointment, please bring the contact information for all the providers and places you have visited for evaluation of your Long COVID symptoms prior to coming to the Recovery Center, along with a list of medications and over-the-counter supplements that you are currently taking.
What is Long COVID?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) broadly defines long COVID as signs, symptoms and conditions that continue or develop after an initial COVID-19 infection. The term, post-COVID conditions, chronic COVID and long-haul COVID are other terms used to describe the wide range of symptoms and conditions that persist for longer than four weeks and can last months to years after initial COVID-19 infection.
Common symptoms of long COVID include but are not limited to:
- Fatigue
- Brain fog
- Difficulty thinking or concentrating
- Memory problems
- Chest pain
- Shortness of breath
- Sleep disturbance
- Malaise
- Joint pain
- Depressed mood
- Anxious mood
- Loss of taste or smell
If you have Long COVID-19, the UBMD Long COVID Recovery Center will work with you to provide the best available support based on the latest understanding of the disease.
Long COVID looks different for everyone
Long COVID is a condition that researchers are still trying to better understand; however, we do know that the long-term effects of COVID-19 can vary from patient to patient and affect a variety of systems within the body. Support for long COVID patients requires an individualized plan and support from various medical specialties, including but not limited to:
- Primary care
- Neurology
- Cardiology
- Pulmonary medicine
- Infectious diseases
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Behavioral health
- Social work
Our mission at the Recovery Center
Our goal at the UBMD Long COVID Recovery Center is to help you manage long COVID symptoms with a holistic approach to your treatment. There are various opportunities and resources available, such as educational opportunities, future research opportunities, mental health support, and referrals to other medical specialties, such as occupational and physical therapy who specifically have a focus on treating Long COVID patients.
When you complete the Long COVID Registry prior to your appointment, you are helping researchers to further assess the extent of the long COVID problem in the Western New York Community.
However, the UBMD Long COVID Recovery Center is not research. It is a clinical practice with the goal of providing the best care available support for for people with Long COVID based on an individual's symptoms.
For those interested, opportunities to participate in additional long COVID research may become available for patients on a voluntary basis; this will be offered to individuals based on a person's symptoms. There is NO obligation to be engaged in research for any individual seen at the Recovery Center.