A Qualitative Study on the Working Experiences of Clinical Pharmacists in Fighting Against COVID-19 (preprint)

Background: Along with the medical team, clinical pharmacists played a significant role during the public health emergency of COVID-19. However, to our knowledge, few studies on their work experience with combating COVID-19 have been published. Interviews with clinical pharmacists was conducted to better understand their roles. Through these interviews, further insight would be gained regarding the existing problems within pharmaceutical departments in medical institutions. This information could be used to amend emergency plans for when these departments encounter catastrophic public health events. Methods: A qualitative study design was employed with face-to-face and audio-recorded interviews being conducted with 13 clinical pharmacists. This group included nutritional pharmacists from two hospitals that were fighting against COVID-19 in Henan. All interviews were transcribed verbatim, and the interview data were analyzed thematically using Colaizzi software (version 11). Results: The results contributed to a deeper understanding of the clinical pharmacists’ work experiences providing consultation for the medical department. Four themes emerged from interview data, including the role played by clinical pharmacists, experiences encountered by clinical pharmacists, psychological feelings of clinical pharmacists, and career expectations of clinical pharmacists. Conclusions: This exploratory study provides preliminary evidence that some of the work experiences of clinical pharmacists were aligned. However, some deficiencies, such as lack of participation, were highlighted by the clinical pharmacists and these deficiencies are areas that need to be improved by the department of pharmacy.

Do e-scooters fill mobility gaps and promote equity before and during COVID-19? A spatiotemporal analysis using open big data (preprint)

The growing popularity of e-scooters and their rapid expansion across urban streets has attracted widespread attention. A major policy question is whether e-scooters substitute existing mobility options or fill the service gaps left by them. This study addresses this question by analyzing the spatiotemporal patterns of e-scooter service availability and use in Washington DC, focusing on their spatial relationships with public transit and bikesharing. Results from an analysis of three open big datasets suggest that e-scooters have both competing and complementary effects on transit and bikesharing services. The supply of e-scooters significantly overlaps with the service areas of transit and bikesharing, and we classify a majority of e-scooter trips as substitutes to transit and bikesharing uses. A travel-time-based analysis further reveals that when choosing e-scooters over transit, travelers pay a price premium and save some travel time. The price premium is greater during the COVID-19 pandemic but the associated travel-time savings are smaller. This implies that public health considerations rather than time-cost tradeoffs are the main driver for many to choose e-scooters over transit during COVID. In addition, we find that e-scooters complement bikesharing and transit by providing services to underserved neighborhoods. A sizeable proportion (about 10 percent) of e-scooter trips are taken to connect with the rail services. Future research may combine the big-data-based analysis presented here with traditional methods to further shed light on the interactions between e-scooter services, bikesharing, and public transit.

Children with coronavirus disease 2019: A review of demographic, clinical, laboratory, and imaging features in pediatric patients

There is a current outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), with a global spread. With the rapid increase in the number of infections, an increase is observed in the number of children with COVID-19. Most research findings are regarding adult cases, which are not always transferrable to children. Evidence-based studies are still expected to formulate clinical decisions for pediatric patients. In this review, we included 2597 pediatric patients that reported recently and evaluated the demographic, clinical, laboratory, and imaging features of children with COVID-19. We found that even lymphopenia was the most common lab finding in adults;it infrequently occurred in children (9.8%). Moreover, elevated creatine kinase MB isoenzyme was much more commonly observed in children (27.0%) than that in adults, suggesting that heart injury would be more likely to occur in pediatric patients. Our analysis may contribute to determine the spectrum of disease in children and to develop strategies to control the disease transmission.