[People's perceptions with motor disabilities of rehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic]. / Percepciones sobre la rehabilitación durante la pandemia por COVID-19 de las personas con discapacidad motora.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The World Health Organization declared COrona VIrus Disease 19 (COVID-19) a pandemic and recommended social distancing as a preventive measure. This affected all medical-clinical treatments, including those related to the physical rehabilitation process. The objective was to describe the perceptions about the rehabilitation process due to the modifications experienced by people with motor disabilities in a rehabilitation hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Qualitative design. The sample chosen was for convenience and the data analysis was by thematic analysis, which allows to identify, analyze and report themes. The interviews were conducted with patients seen in the physiotherapy división of the hospital. INCLUSION CRITERIA: adults >18 years old, diagnosis of motor disability, undergoing physical treatment ≥1 month on an outpatient basis, with early discharge from hospitalization or hospitalization at the time of the study and signing of the informed consent. EXCLUSION CRITERIA: physical discharge for reasons other than COVID-19 and diagnosis of psychiatric illness. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 16 participants. 31.2% were female. Twelve presented various neurological alterations and 4 amputation effects. Four main themes were identified: importance of rehabilitation, treatment modifications/interruption, activities of daily living and tele-rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS: Perceptions about the rehabilitation process and the impact on the modifications experienced in people with motor disabilities were described. We highlight the importance of tele-rehabilitation as an alternative resource.

PERCEPCIONES SOBRE LA REHABILITACIÓN DURANTE LA PANDEMIA COVID-19 DE LAS PERSONAS CON DISCAPACIDAD MOTORA PEOPLE´S PERCEPTIONS WITH MOTOR DISABILITIES OF REHABILITATION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Antecedentes y objetivo. La Organización Mundial de la Salud declaró a la infección por COrona VIrus Disease 19 (COVID-19) como pandemia y recomendó como medida preventiva, el distanciamiento social. Esto afectó todos los tratamientos médico-clínicos incluidos los relacionados con el proceso de rehabilitación física. El objetivo fue describir las percepciones sobre el proceso de rehabilitación debido a las modificaciones experimentadas por las personas con discapacidad motora de un hospital de rehabilitación durante la pandemia COVID-19. Pacientes y métodos. Diseño cualitativo. La muestra elegida fue por conveniencia y el análisis de datos fue por análisis temático, el cual permite identificar, analizar y reportar temas relevantes. Las entrevistas se realizaron a pacientes atendidos en la División de Kinesiología. Criterios de inclusión: adultos >18 años, diagnóstico de discapacidad motora, en tratamiento kinésico ≥1 mes de forma ambulatoria, con alta temprana de internación o internados al momento de la realización del estudio y firma del consentimiento informado. Criterios de exclusión: alta kinésica por motivos diferentes a la COVID-19 y diagnóstico de enfermedad psiquiátrica. Resultados. La muestra se compuso de 16 participantes. El 31,2% era de sexo femenino. Doce presentaron diversas alteraciones neurológicas y 4, secuelas de amputación. Se identificaron 4 temas principales: importancia de la rehabilitación, modificaciones/interrupción del tratamiento, actividades de la vida diaria y telerrehabilitación. Conclusiones. Se describieron las percepciones sobre el proceso de rehabilitación y el impacto en las modificaciones experimentadas en las personas con discapacidad motora. Destacamos la importancia de la telerrehabilitación como un recurso alternativo.

Detection of Outer Throat Infection using Deep Convolutional Neural Network

It is integral for physicians to be able to assess through a thorough history and physical exam. However, it has been increasingly difficult to perform rigorous physical examinations because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, there is an increasing relevance of improved techniques of assessment through image classification using Deep Convolutional Neural Network. The ResNet50 architecture will be used as a classifier in Convolutional Neural Network. This type of network subtracts the feature learned from any given layer for which the ResNet50 learns by utilizing the found shortcut connections, which proved to be easier compared to some types of Convolutional Neural Networks. The learned features from ResNet50 are essential to Fully Connected Layers in Neural Networks as it aids the neural network to decide based on the features extracted and come up with a result using softmax function. The researchers are able to train a network and test it. It is very convenient for a patient, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, to be assessed without having to be physically examined by a physician. In the GUI, the patient must register on the web app and take a photo of the throat and send it - the patient will reserve a notification containing the diagnosis of the photo. The network obtained positive results, with a 92% accuracy rate in looking for healthy, inflamed throat, inflamed throat and swollen tonsilitis, inflamed throat/ swollen tonsils, and white spots in throat images. © 2021 IEEE.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on endoscopy procedure volume and cancer detection rate at a large academic cancer center

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected the capacity to perform standard endoscopic procedures. Due to government mandate, practice shifted to performing only urgent procedures at the beginning of the pandemic followed by gradual resumption of elective procedures. We evaluated the impact of deferred colorectal cancer screening from March to December 2020 at a large academic cancer center. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study among adults aged 18 years and older who had an endoscopy procedure performed between January 2019 to December 2020 at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. In March 2020, elective procedures were suspended, then resumed in June 2020, with close to full capacity achieved by September 2020. There was no suspension during the 2020 winter COVID-19 surge. Clinical data were obtained via extraction of electronic health records. Data were aggregated and analyzed by the Syntropy platform: Palantir Foundry (Foundry). Basic statistics were performed, including student's t-test and Chi-squared analysis. Results: We identified 12444 endoscopy procedures performed on 9993 patients in 2019 and 9993 endoscopy procedures on 8138 patients in 2020 (Table 1). Between March and December 2020, 8756 COVID tests were performed pre-endoscopy, with an average positivity rate of 4.8%. In Texas, the average COVID positivity rate was 8.9%. Total endoscopy volume declined by 19.7% in 2020 compared to 2019 (P-value = 0.02). The sharpest declines in endoscopy were in April 2020, with EGD volume falling by 76%, colonoscopy volume by 78%, and ERCP volume by 16% compared to respective averages in April 2019. By the end of 2020, case volume returned to 2019 levels. From March 2020 to December 2020, 850 colonoscopies were cancelled;average adenoma detection rates (ADR) were 27.0 and average carcinoma detection rates (CDR) were 10.7, compared to ADR of 34.5 (P-value = 0.004) and CDR of 12.6 (P=0.71) for the same time period in 2019. See Figure 1. Conclusion: Total endoscopy volume declined by 19.7% in 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19 related changes in endoscopy practice. This impacted elective procedures such as screening colonoscopy procedures. The ADR was significantly lower in 2020 compared to 2019. There was not a significant change in CDR. These findings highlight the importance of increased routine endoscopic procedures, as the burden of COVID-19 diminishes. (Table Presented).