ABSTRACT
Background: During the Covid-19 (Cov19) pandemic hospitals were assigned to four levels according their resources to manage the increased demand of intensive care treatments. This study aims to contribute towards quantifying the impact of the Cov19 pandemic on cancer care of patients with cervical cancer in Germany by investigating the diagnoses and treatments in Hessian hospitals of different Cov19 levels. Method(s): Data of patients with cervical cancer (C53) diagnosed from 2016 to 2020, were extracted from the database of the Hessian cancer registry. With regard to a continuously stable registration activity eleven hospitals were included in the analysis. Seven hospitals met the criteria for Cov19 level 1 (highest requirements) and four hospitals for level 2. Result(s): In 2020, 31% fewer patients with cervical cancer were diagnosed in eleven Hessian hospitals compared to previous years (n=124 vs. n=179). Primary tumor resections were reduced by 24%, whereas no difference could be detected in their relative amount or timespan from diagnosis. The patient cohort was younger with a median age of 46 vs. 50 years and with early stage I-II in 70% vs. 62%. The reduction in treatment was mostly seen in the Cov19 level 1 hospitals, while level 2 hospitals could increase the amount of diagnosed (14%) and treated (27%) patients. Discussion(s): Despite a reduction of diagnoses and treatments, primary surgery was not delayed. The patient characteristics imply that predominantly elder women with advanced stages omitted hospital treatment. The increased burden of care of Cov19 patients for the level 1 hospitals clearly had an impact on the care of cancer patients, which could be partially absorbed by level 2 hospitals. Conclusion(s): Reorganisation of hospitals according to Cov19 levels was an important tool to enable treatment of Cov19 patients while maintaining cancer care by shifting treatment to other hospitals. However, there is an impact on missed diagnoses and treatments of patients, that will result in a higher morbidity and mortality.
ABSTRACT
During spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused massive reductions in emissions from industry and ground and airborne transportation. To explore the resulting atmospheric composition changes, we conducted the BLUESKY campaign with two research aircraft and measured trace gases, aerosols, and cloud properties from the boundary layer to the lower stratosphere. From 16 May to 9 June 2020, we performed 20 flights in the early COVID-19 lockdown phase over Europe and the Atlantic Ocean. We found up to 50% reductions in boundary layer nitrogen dioxide concentrations in urban areas from GOME-2B satellite data, along with carbon monoxide reductions in the pollution hot spots. We measured 20%-70% reductions in total reactive nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and fine mode aerosol concentration in profiles over German cities compared to a 10-yr dataset from passenger aircraft. The total aerosol mass was significantly reduced below 5 km altitude, and the organic aerosol fraction also aloft, indicative of decreased organic precursor gas emissions. The reduced aerosol optical thickness caused a perceptible shift in sky color toward the blue part of the spectrum (hence BLUESKY) and increased shortwave radiation at the surface. We find that the 80% decline in air traffic led to substantial reductions in nitrogen oxides at cruise altitudes, in contrail cover, and in resulting radiative forcing. The light extinction and depolarization by cirrus were also reduced in regions with substantially decreased air traffic. General circulation-chemistry model simulations indicate good agreement with the measurements when applying a reduced emission scenario. The comprehensive BLUESKY dataset documents the major impact of anthropogenic emissions on the atmospheric composition.
ABSTRACT
While Open Innovation (OI) and user integration have been applied across industries over the last two decades more professionally and digitally, the life science (LS) sector has various obstacles and regulations to overcome in order to implement and execute OI initiatives as well as entire programs. Moreover, scientific research has been scarce on analyzing data in this industry. The number of companies applying OI methodologies has risen significantly in the last couple of years. However, intellectual property (IP) and data protection make it hard to get access to good insights. However, we have accompanied ten LS companies (including 48 OI initiatives/programs) using an action research approach based on various data (e.g., interviews) over ten years, including the time of the outbreak and dissemination of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we will share insights about 1) the unique characteristics of OI in the LS sector compared to other industries, 2) the identification of used OI methodologies and their success criteria, as well as 3) the change and influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of OI programs in the LS sector. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.