Private and Public Digitalization and Economic Resilience during COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic represented a tremendous shock for both public and private sectors and put pressure on the economic environment alongside national healthcare systems. Our article examined the economic resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic in the EU Member States and assessed if countries with more intense use of digitalization instruments (e-government features, e-commerce, ITC skills, etc.) in both public and private sectors registered a lower economic decline during 2019–2020. Our approach was based firstly on statistical correlation analysis applied to several indicators obtained from Eurostat and European Commission. Secondly, we elaborated different regional models of economic and social homogenous characteristics that could be found among EU Member States based on a hierarchical cluster analysis model applied to several structural socio-economic and digitalization indicators. The main conclusion was that there is a strong positive correlation between the share of ITC employment and the share of ITC in GDP, and the level of digital skills for individuals and the share of companies with high intensity of digitalization. © 2023 by the authors.

The impact of the covid-19 pandemic on gastrointestinal endoscopy activity in a tertiary care center from north-eastern romania

Aims The outbreak of the corona-virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to significant changes in endoscopy unitsworldwide, with potential impact on patients' welfare as well as on endoscopy training. We aimed to assess the real-lifeimpact of COVID-19 on the endoscopy unit in a tertiary care center from Romania. Methods We performed a service evaluation using the local endoscopy database. Two time periods were analyzed, namelyfrom the 1 of March to 15 September 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic and a similar period between 1 of March -15 September 2019. Results There was a 6.2 fold decrease of the number of endoscopic procedures as a result of COVID-19. The mostimportant reduction was found in colonoscopy, from 916 to 42 procedures, P < 0.001, followed by flexible sigmoidoscopy, from 189 to 14 procedures, P = 0.009, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, from 2269 to 401 procedures, P = 0.006, and ERCP, from 234 to 125 procedures, P < 0.001. The percentage of emergency procedures increased (38.8 % vs 26.2 %, P < 0.001),as well as the rate of endoscopies performed for upper GI bleeding (42.5 % vs 24.4 %, respectively, P < 0.001). Thedetection of cancers was considerably reduced (57 compared to 249, P = 0.001). Surprisingly the rate of complications waslower and the success of the procedures higher (7.6 % vs 19.2 %, P < 0.001, and 94.2 % vs 90.7 %, respectively). Fellowparticipation was also reduced from 90 % before the pandemic to 40.9 % during COVID-19 time (P < 0.001). Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered the workflow of the endoscopy unit, lowering the number ofprocedures performed and potentially compromising the early detection of cancers.