ABSTRACT
The huge impact of COVID-19 on the global healthcare systems has accelerated the search for novel tools to stem the tide. Attention has turned to the digital health community to provide possible solutions that could mitigate the impact of this pandemic. Among all the shifts and changes, the education sector has experienced its own setbacks. Knowing that social distancing and temperature screening were major requirements to re-open schools, it becomes mandatory to monitor the vital signs of the students to effectively identify any high risk. Hence, digital-based solutions can help capture information on possible prospect of contagion to facilitate active COVID-19 surveillance. In this work, we design the COVID-Band, which uses the IoT technology to monitor the safe distance, body temperature and pulse rate of school students. The proposed work provides an efficient digital tool to help accelerate detection, reporting, active surveillance and rapid response for COVID-19 cases at schools. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Context: As Diabetes is the most common co morbidity reported with covid-19 infection Severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus -2 (SARA CoV-2) which brought about the ongoing pandemic gave opportunity to study the impact of diabetes on hospital stay and mortality of diabetic patients who contracted the corona virus infection. Objective: To study the duration of hospital stay and mortality rate of diabetic patients with moderate to severe covid 19 infection/severe acute respiratory illness and compare it with non diabetic patients of same disease. Method: This was a retrospective observational study in which the records of diabetic patients admitted with severe acute respiratory illness, during the ongoing pandemic, in Al Ameen Medical College Hospital were studied and were compared with the non diabetic patients admitted for the same. The duration of stay and mortality was compared statistically. No distinction was made with respect to type 1& 2 diabetes as they were clubbed together in the same group. Results: Mean duration of illness in diabetic group was 8.1 with SD of 6.9 days and in non diabetic group was 8.4 days with SD 6.5 (p value= 0.8). Mortality was 32.5% among diabetics and 15.7% in non diabetics (p value= 0.001). Conclusion: Our study shows that the duration of hospital stay and mortality was considerably higher in diabetics than non diabetic counterparts. Therefore due attention should be given by general diabetic population to keep their blood glucose levels under control especially in this period of ongoing covid 19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Background: For patients of reproductive age with cancer, counseling regarding reproductive risks associated with systemic therapy and facilitating access to fertility services are essential to quality care. We conducted a quality improvement study to improve rates of fertility preservation counseling at the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (SKCCC) in Baltimore, MD. Methods: We formed a multidisciplinary team as part of the ASCO Quality Training Program. We aimed to increase the rate of fertility preservation counseling for patients of reproductive age (18-40 years) with newly diagnosed cancer who were initiating systemic therapy from a baseline (June 2019-January 2020) of 36.7% (25/68) to 70.0% by February, 2021. Data sources included the electronic medical record and direct verification with patients by phone. We surveyed patients, oncologists, and experts in reproductive endocrinology and urology to identify barriers to optimal care. After considering a prioritization matrix, we implemented Plan-DoStudy-Act (PDSA) cycles. Results: We identified the following improvement opportunities: (1) oncologist under confidence about counseling, (2) oncologist lack of knowledge about local fertility preservation options/processes, and (3) lack of a standardized referral mechanism to reproductive endocrinology/urology. The first PDSA cycle was disrupted due to COVID-19;from February 2020-August 2020, we introduced the initiative at oncology disease site meetings (e.g., leukemia). In September 2020, we implemented a second PDSA cycle. Our interventions included (1) presenting the baseline data and fellow-led initiative at Oncology Grand Rounds (attended by 150 staff members), (2) creating and distributing paper and electronic informative pamphlets to oncologists and patients, and (3) implementing an electronic medical record order set. This order set included instructions for providers and patients, necessary laboratory studies, and a referral to reproductive endocrinology or orders for cryopreservation of sperm. It also added the following to a patient's after visit summary: Contact information for a dedicated fertility coordinator, estimated costs of services, and financial assistance programs. Postimplementation (September 2020-February 2021), the percentage of patients who reported receiving fertility preservation counseling increased from 36.7% to 80.9% (38/47). A sustained shift in the process was apparent on a control chart. Conclusions: Despite disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we demonstrate how a trainee-led, patientcentered initiative improved fertility care services for people with cancer. Ongoing work focuses on ensuring sustainability of change, assessing the quality of counseling, and evaluating the impact on utilization of fertility care services.
ABSTRACT
Background: As the epidemic that started at Wuhan spread globally many agents with antiviral activity were evaluated for the treatment of coronavirus disease. Many agents were claimed to be "Game changer" in the management of covid. Likewise Remdesivir received much attention leading to high demand of a scarcely produced antiviral agent, which many a times was out of stock in our region.
ABSTRACT
Background With emergence of coronavirus-2019 or COVID-19 a diverse number of people have been infected worldwide in a short time, with no specific treatment or vaccine. Infected patients are in danger of creating respiratory failure that necessitating admission to intensive care units (ICU). Thus intensivists (ICU providers) and anesthesiologists must be ready for the newcomers to ICU and to sustain care for them. Method We performed a narrative review via searching in three databases PubMed, Google Scholar and Embase for all studies that mentioned all intensive care admission rates for who infected with coronavirus 2019, manual searching also completed. All the selected reviews were limited to the English language and date also. Result Five researches referred to the rate of ICU admission, about 9.3% of all cases. Male patients were more comparing to female (59% to 41%), median age range were (40-56) years, cases with co-existing diseases range from 23.7%-51%, with ICU admission rate being 5%-32%. An immense number of patients received oxygen therapy (41.3%-76.81%), while 6.7% of cases were under non-invasive ventilation with range from 4.9%-24% and just 3.6% of patients who received invasive ventilation with range from 3.3%-12.32%. Finally the mortality rate was 2.6%. Conclusion The novel virus, COVID-19 has shown to more likely affect older male with underlying conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and others, a point that could expose them to fatal respiratory symptoms, including respiratory failure. So a quite enough of patients might need oxygen support and ICU admission.