Germany-wide implementation of autopsies and biobanking
Given the need for centralised and coordinated support, reporting, systematic biobanking and structured data collection, the first version of a Germany-wide registry of COVID-19 autopsies (DeRegCOVID) was launched on 15 April 2020. The main objective of this registry is to collect harmonised and factually anonymised data on all autopsies and associated biomaterials from COVID-19 patients in Germany in a decentralised manner and to categorise and analyse them centrally.
DeRegCOVID is led by the University Hospital of RWTH Aachen University and was set up with the support of the Federal Association of German Pathologists (BDP) and the German Society of Pathology (DGP). It is the world's first centralised national registry for COVID-19 autopsies. The data collection is based on the WHO recommendations and the German S1 guideline for performing autopsies.
