TL;DR
My friend, Christian, has battled Long COVID for ~3 years. He kept hitting the same wall: scattered, inconsistent information and no clear path through Germany’s healthcare and social systems. So we built covidhilfe.com - a fast, self-hosted, research-checked knowledge hub designed for patients and families. It currently hosts 70+ structured resources, plain-language guides, structured checklists, and audio narration with transparent sourcing and ongoing updates.
Why we built it
When a close friend of mine developed Long COVID nearly three years ago, our biggest struggle wasn’t only the illness - it was the confusing, fragmented information. Long COVID is an exclusion diagnosis: you only receive it once everything else has been ruled out. That meant endless appointments, inconsistent answers, and a lack of structured guidance.
In that fog, most patients default to self-therapy - without context on risks, dosages, interactions, or what tests to run first. It’s overwhelming, frustrating, and sometimes dangerous.
We decided to build the resource we wished had existed on day one: a patient-first, science-grounded hub that translates complex evidence into practical next steps - plus the real-life guidance on family, work, and support systems.
So we built covidhilfe.com.
What you'll find inside
Today, CovidHilfe hosts 70+ resources across the key areas patients and families need most:
- 🧪 Medical Tests (7 articles): explanations of common bloodwork and antibody tests, including limitations and costs.
- Therapy Approaches (24): from HELP-apheresis to oxygen therapy - with study-based context.
- 💊 Supplements (17): vitamins, minerals, and off-label treatments - explained with mechanisms, dosages, and caveats.
- 🩺 Doctors & Specialists (9): what each speciality looks for and how that maps to common Long COVID symptom clusters.
- 👤 Doctor Search: Find 175 specialists in your area that are known to treat Long Covid and ME/CFS patients
- 📖 Social Security (5): guides to disability grading, pensions, and benefits.
- ♥️ Relationships (4): guides on how to communicate with partners, family, friends and manage work/return-to-work realities - cause illness hits a whole household
- 📚 Studies (8): summaries of current clinical trials, recruiting criteria, and what they investigate.
- 🎙️ Podcast: conversations that bring patient experiences and practical realities to life.
Each article is written in plain, accessible language and includes audio narration for those experiencing fatigue or cognitive load.
Available on Spotify, Apple and your favorite podcast player
How we built it
Behind the scenes, CovidHilfe combines AI-assisted research synthesis (Gemini, GPT, Claude, Grok) with manual editing to ensure both scientific accuracy and patient readability. We cross-validate findings, check against available studies, and translate into formats patients can actually use.
Technically, the site is built with Next.js 15, custom-designed and self-hosted on Coolify for speed, accessibility, and indexability. A TinaCMS content model stored in GitHub powers structured entries and SEO metadata. Every choice - from infrastructure to formatting - was made to keep the experience fast, reliable, and respectful of patients’ limited energy.
What's different?
- ✅ Patient-led, science-grounded: AI synthesis + human editorial review. Clinical trial pages are fully sourced; broader guides emphasize clarity, caution, and disclaimers.
- ✅ Built for real life: beyond medicine, we cover family, work, and navigating social systems.
- ✅ Structured & consistent: each therapy approach/test/supplement follows a standard format, making comparisons easier and the experience less overwhelming.
Who is this for?
- Patients & families who need a clear starting point.
- Support groups looking for a single reference to share.
- Clinicians & researchers who want to see what patients are reading, trying, and experiencing.
What’s next
- Expanding the podcast to dive deeper into each category.
- Growing outreach to self-help circles and patient communities.
How you can contribute
If you or someone you love is living with Long COVID, we hope covidhilfe.com saves you time, energy, and stress.
🔗 Explore the hub: covidhilfe.com
💬 Share it with someone who might benefit.
🤝 Have feedback or want to collaborate? Reach out here on LinkedIn or via email: [email protected].