Impact of COVID-19 in patients with multiple myeloma based on a global data network.

The COVID-19 pandemic has represented a major cause of morbidity/mortality worldwide, overstressing health systems. Multiple myeloma (MM) patients show an increased risk for infections and they are expected to be particularly vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Here we have obtained a comprehensive picture of the impact of COVID-19 in MM patients on a local and a global scale using a federated data research network (TriNetX) that provided access to Electronic Medical Records (EMR) from Health Care Organizations (HCO) all over the world. Through propensity score matched analyses we found that the number of new diagnoses of MM was reduced in 2020 compared to 2019 (RR 0.86, 95%CI 0.76-0.96) and the survival of newly diagnosed MM cases decreased similarly (HR 0.61, 0.38-0.81). MM patients showed higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection (RR 2.09, 1.58-2.76) and a higher excess mortality in 2020 (difference in excess mortality 9%, 4.4-13.2) than non-MM patients. By interrogating large EMR datasets from HCO in Europe and globally, we confirmed that MM patients have been more severely impacted by COVID-19 pandemic than non-MM patients. This study highlights the necessity of extending preventive measures worlwide to protect vulnerable patients from SARS-CoV-2 infection by promoting social distancing and an intensive vaccination strategies.

Intellectual property in waste management: a reference to address a future challenge

This article analyzes the set of existing patents in the field of Waste Management. The extraction of the data and its exploitation allow the authors to lay the foundations for the development of a well-founded exploratory analysis of the sector's capacity to address the immediate and future challenges it faces, considering that these challenges are binding on today's society as a whole and committing the societies that will succeed us in the future. Our basic aim is to offer a general view regarding the type of assignees, differences regarding the technological fields across regions of the world, and some quality indicators of patents and its antecedent factors. A sector's capacity for technological innovation and development can be partially measured by considering its muscle and interest in protecting its intellectual property. Since this is a sector with a high social impact and a high degree of regulation imposed by public agents, the innovative work in the field should be aligned with the framework defined by those. In spite of these conditions, our empirical study shows the extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis on the activity of patenting in Waste Management. Also, we conclude that there are clear differences in patenting which respond to the different needs and circumstances that regions face regarding Waste Management.