ABSTRACT
4The University of the sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, QLD, Australia Background and Aims: Access to health services and quality of life are important factors for long-term cancer survivorship. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted cancer care globally. In response to the pandemic, reconfiguration of services and adoption of telehealth have been essential for continuation of services, while also offering an alternative approach to cancer care and support. This study explores the role of telehealth in providing health and supportive services to Australian rural/regional cancer patients during COVID-19 and their attitudes on the quality of these services to inform future practice. Method(s): Rural/regional cancer patients and survivors (n = 66) completed an online survey regarding the transition and delivery of health and support services via telehealth during COVID-19. Data was collected as part of a bi-annual survey on client satisfaction at a rural/regional community cancer wellness centre in Australia. Result(s): Participants included 71% females with 48% younger (under 64 years), and 52% older cancer patients and survivors (65 years and over), with a mix of cancer presentations. Younger participants were significantly (p < 0.05) more likely to use allied health services via video/telehealth during COVID-19 compared to their older counterparts. The preferred format for nursing health services in the future was face-to-face (59% for younger and42%for older participants) telehealth (10% for both groups), and mixed (31% for younger and 48% for older participants). Although not statistically significant (p>.05), it is interesting that the older cohort had a greater preference for a mixed modality of face-to-face and telehealth in meeting their future health service needs. Conclusion(s): Telehealth has benefits for the delivery of health and supportive services to rural/regional cancer patients. Nurses can play a key role in assessing the support needs of cancer survivors and facilitate strategies to ensure that survivors have the skills necessary to access telehealth support.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic is almost half year old now and is still tormenting the humans to unimaginable extent with deeper interference to their routine life and peace. As approved vaccines are yet to be synthesized and standard therapeutic procedures are awaiting establishment for fighting against new Corona virus, several treatment modalities are being suggested and tried out by scientific community. Many of such approaches follow a drug repurposing approach as a possible remedy could prevent a great amount of loss in a shorter span of time. In this background, we report our attempt made for identifying a solution to this malady with a similar strategy. We used machine learning algorithms and the structural information of already approved drugs to identify potential therapeutics for managing the Covid-19 crisis. The experiments have been done with a group of 77 antiviral molecules (for the training phase of machine learning) and another group, comprising 9 antivirals and 11 antimalarials (meant for the testing phase). All the chosen molecules are approved category drugs and have significant drug action against the viruses. The identified molecules are subjected to validation by making docking studies with recently released crystal structures of Corona Virus. The binding affinity of the tested small molecules with three selected severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) structures are computed and compared with the affinity scores of five other medications viz. Hydroxychloroquine, Favipiravir, Dexamethasone, Dichlorobenzyl alcohol and Amyl metacresol followed by subjecting the results to the statistical test of ANOVA. The predicted therapeutics in conjunction with their already established characteristics could be further put to evaluation by approved clinical trials towards determining the efficiency of them against COVID-19 infection.