IoT in Healthcare in Times of Pandemic (COVID-19)

The novel corona virus (COVID-19) has created a challenge for health experts and doctors to take control of the current situation. There has been continuous research made worldwide to combat this global public health crisis. The infectious cases have already crossed over 223 million cases as per WHO, so far. Internet of things (IoT) is one of the main tools that have to break the ground with its numerous benefits. The IoT has changed the outlook of the modern healthcare system. Various devices embedded with the internet are used to minimize the spread of COVID-19. These devices help in early diagnosing, performing necessary procedures, and monitoring patients' health. This paper outlines the role of IoT based technologies as to how it is used for combating the novel severe respiratory syndrome corona virus-2 and also proposes a better solution for the patients to identify the efficient healthcare unit when suffering from a health issue. This helps the common man to identify which healthcare unit is specialized in treating them. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Short-term association between COVID-19 related deaths, hospitalized patients and air pollution during the first lockdown in the four largest cities in Germany

Identifying risk factors of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for its clinical course became important during the current global health crisis. This study explores the relationship between ambient air quality and the clinical course of COVID-19 during the first German lockdown. Daily air pollutant concentrations (PM10, O3 and NO2) and confirmed COVID-19-related hospital cases and deaths in the four largest German cities are used for multivariate regression analysis to study the correlation of air pollutants with COVID-19-related hospitalised or ICU patients and deaths. A significant positive association of O3 with patients and deaths is observed. NO2 shows a positive correlation with hospitalised and ICU patients. A 10 µg/m3 increase in O3 is linked to a 27% (95% CI: 15% to 39%) increase of COVID-19-related deaths. However, PM10 is associated with a decrease in deaths. Altogether, these findings indicate that air pollutants seem to have a significant influence on the course of COVID-19 infections. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Introduction

The security of Canada's local food supply rests on migrant farmworkers. Given this reliance, Chapter 1 explores how, during the global health pandemic, alongside introducing sweeping public health and safety restrictions, Canada managed threats of national food shortages by boosting agricultural production and processing capacity to address an emerging backlog of produce and ensuring growers' continued access to migrant farmworkers. In the face of such interventions, the analysis shows that while farms and greenhouses were declared essential worksites, justifying exemptions from border restrictions applicable to migrant farmworkers, they proved prone to COVID-19 outbreaks. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Energy assistance programs in Ibero-America and their adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic

Ibero-America, a region with high levels of pre-existing poverty, has been considerably affected by the pandemic. Several regulatory measures have been implemented to provide additional financial assistance to the population. Due to the significant fiscal expenditure involved in universal subsidies, several countries have decided to target resources to the most vulnerable sectors. However, the literature focused on these targeted subsidies and beneficiary selection mechanisms is scarce. This article presents a descriptive review of the targeted subsidies implemented in eight Ibero-American countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, the targeting mechanisms, and the modifications made to pre-existing subsidies to adapt them to the health crisis. The research was conducted with the support of regulators from the countries studied and demonstrates that the Ibero-American regulatory response is in line with measures implemented internationally. By showing a catalog of regulatory measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, this article is relevant for policymakers to face future health crises and any scenario that forces the population to be confined in their homes, including extreme weather events. © 2023 The Author(s)

Prediction of COVID-19 Severity Using Patient's PHR

A significant health crisis, including the current COVID-19 outbreak, presents us for an opportunity to think about it and focus on how we may improve the way we handle health care in the future to make us humans better prepared and capable of dealing with such an incident.Since the COVID-19 trend has swayed irregularly, they have remained in the dark, unsure how much resources they will have even in the future week.At these instances, difficult period to be capable of predicting exactly what sort of resources a person have it necessary now of a positive test, or perhaps even earlier, would take place extremely beneficial to organizations, as they will be able to get or make preparations with their resource required to save that patient's existence.The aim of the work is to devise a system that would be both outlay and reliable. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Consuming in a crisis: pandemic consumption across consumer segments and implications for brands

Purpose: This paper aims to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumers' perceptions of outdoor consumption categories, such as retail shopping, eating out, public events and travel and how these perceptions may impact businesses in these domains in the long term. Further, this research aims to understand demographic effects on outdoor consumption inhibition during the current pandemic and discuss how businesses can use these insights to rebrand their offerings and evolve after the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: Data collected by CivicScience, a survey-based consumer intelligence research platform, during April–July 2020 forms the basis of the preliminary analysis, where the chi-square test has been used to examine significant differences in consumer attitudes between different age groups, income groups and genders. Further, a social media analysis of conversations around outdoor consumption activities is undertaken to understand the rationale behind these demographics-based attitude differences. Findings: Results lend varying degrees of support to the hypothesized consumer attitudes toward outdoor consumption activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. As the pandemic wore on, older (vs younger), female (vs male) consumers and lower (vs higher) income-group consumers had reportedly higher inhibition toward different outdoor activities. Older individuals were significantly less likely to shop, dine and attend public events than younger individuals. Lower-income consumers were significantly less likely to dine and travel than higher-income consumer consumers. Female consumers were significantly less likely to shop and travel than male consumers. Social media scan of conversations suggests that differences in perceived health and financial risks may have resulted in demographics-based differences in outdoor consumption activities. Research limitations/implications: This study contributes to the literature by understanding demographic differences in consumer participation in outdoor activities. One limitation is that due to the time-sensitive nature of the pandemic research, further studies could not be conducted to understand the implications of other variables, beyond demographics that influence consumer behavior during a crisis. A future research direction is to understand how other psychological variables or traits, influence health and financial risk-taking behavior during a similar crisis. Originality/value: The principal contribution of the present research is that it tests the risk-taking theory in the context of outdoor consumption during the Covid-19 pandemic. The present research has implications for businesses as they continue to evolve during and post Covid-19. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

[Assessment of the effect of the COVID-19 health crisis on the aerobic capacities of healthy patients]. / Mesure de l'effet de la crise sanitaire COVID-19 sur les capacités aérobies de patients sains.

OBJECTIVES: To measure the impact of the health crisis related to SARS-CoV-2 on the aerobic capacities of healthy patients based on the measurement of VO2 max and VO2 at the first ventilatory threshold (AT). To measure the impact of the introduction of the antibacterial filter on the ventilatory parameter measuring device. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Based on a multicentre (Angers and Cholet), observational and retrospective study, we want to analyze the effect of containment measures and the cessation of sports competitions on the measurement of VO2 max in healthy patients. For each patient, will be collected : the gross value of the max VO2 and indexed to the weight of the patient, as well as its percentage with respect to the expected theoretical value, the value of the VO2 at the aerobic threshold indexed to the wieght of the patient and the usual cardiorespiratory parameters (HR max, RR max, VE max, RER max). Two samples will be analyzed : patients with only one EFX ("unpaired" sample) and patients with multiple successive EFX over three years ("matched" sample). The impact of the antibacterial filter, used in one of the Sports Medicine departments, will be studied as a secondary issue. Statistical analyses were performed with the IBM SPSS 26 software. For all statistical tests, a p value of 0.05 was used in bilateral testing as the significance criterion. RESULTS: There is a significant difference in the value of VO2 max and AT in both the "unpaired" (VO2 max : 36.72 vs 35.08 mL/kg/min, p = 0.014 - AT : 21.03 vs 19.25 mL/kg/min, p < 0.001) and "matched" groups (VO2 max : 2.76 vs 2.64 L/min, p = 0.037 - AT : 1.55 vs 1.38 L/min, p = 0.001), more pronounced in patients over 60 years of age. The impact of the antibacterial filter does not show any particular impact within the "independent" sample. Within the "matched" sample, the significant age difference is not conclusive, but the exclusion of patients over the age of 60 makes the results meaningless.

[The effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on BAPU students: What analyzes were made by clinicians? The specifics of student care needs in a crisis context]. / Les étudiants de BAPU au cours de la pandémie COVID 19 et ses effets: quelles analyses des cliniciens? Spécificités des besoins de soins des étudiants en contexte de crise(s).

The Strasbourg University Medical and Psychological Healthcare Center (CAMUS) provides students consultations with psychologists and psychiatrists, as well as social workers, with a particular focus on proximity and free care. Its partnerships, its strong local roots and its knowledge of the specific mental health needs of young adult students have enabled it to adapt rapidly on an institutional and organizational level to the developing increase in mental care needs. Well in advance of other similar entities, CAMUS had developed with its partners specific prevention and treatment protocols, such as the recourse to student peers, a mobile unit dedicated to eating disorders or coordination with the CUMP (Medico-psychological emergency units) for acute cases of a potentially psychotraumatic nature. These different plans proved to be particularly relevant during and after the health crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exploring Italian healthcare facilities response to COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned from the Italian Response to COVID-19 initiative.

The COVID-19 pandemic exerted an extraordinary pressure on the Italian healthcare system (Sistema Sanitario Nazionale, SSN), determining an unprecedented health crisis. In this context, a multidisciplinary non-governmental initiative called Italian Response to COVID-19 (IRC-19) was implemented from June 2020 to August 2021 to support the Italian health system through multiple activities aimed to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. The objective of this study was to shed light on the role of NGOs in supporting the SSN during the first pandemic wave by specifically exploring: (1) the main challenges experienced by Italian hospitals and out-of-hospital care facilities and (2) the nature and extent of the IRC-19 interventions specifically implemented to support healthcare facilities, to find out if and how such interventions met healthcare facilities' perceived needs at the beginning of the pandemic. We conducted a cross-sectional study using an interviewer administered 32-item questionnaire among 14 Italian healthcare facilities involved in the IRC-19 initiative. Health facilities' main challenges concerned three main areas: healthcare workers, patients, and facilities' structural changes. The IRC-19 initiative contributed to support both hospital and out-of-hospital healthcare facilities by implementing interventions for staff and patients' safety and flow management and interventions focused on the humanization of care. The support from the third sector emerged as an added value that strengthened the Italian response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is in line with the Health-Emergency and Disaster Risk Management (H-EDRM) precepts, that call for a multisectoral and multidisciplinary collaboration for an effective disaster management.

Parents' and children's intolerance of uncertainty and their reactions to COVID-19: A story of remarkable similarity.

The COVID-19 viral outbreak is a one in 100 year public health crisis. In addition to the stunning morbidity and mortality rates related to infection, multiple psychiatric sequelae erupted. Unfortunately, children and adolescents are neither immune to infection nor to the emotional consequences associated with the pandemic. Not surprisingly, the field's understanding of the psychological consequences of the viral outbreak are nascent. Consequently, this study examines the relationship between parents' and children's intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and their reactions to COVID-19. Seventy-three parents and 62 children participated in the on-line survey utilizing innovative measures of IU and COVID-19- related thoughts/behaviors. The results revealed remarkable similarities in parents' and children's responses. Parents' and children's reports of the impact of COVID on their lives were highly correlated (r = .53, df = 60, p < .001). Parents' perceptions of children's COVID-19 thoughts and behaviors were strongly aligned with the youths' self-report of their COVID reactions (r = .69, df = 60, p < .001) as well as the appraisal of the virus' impact on their lives (r = .-.42, df = 60, p < .001). Finally, children's reports of their COVID-19 related thoughts and behaviors were significantly linked to their IU (r = .60, df = 60, p < .001). Methodological limitations notwithstanding, the study's findings provide compelling implications for the conceptualization, assessment, and treatment of emotional distress in the peri- and post-pandemic periods.

High short interest stocks performance during the Covid-19 crisis: an informational efficacy measure based on permutation-entropy approach

Purpose: The author examine the performance of a number of high short interest stocks along with the prices of the GameStop stock and three major stock exchange indices, particularly for the period after the eruption of the Covid-19 crisis. Design/methodology/approach: With the employment of the complexity–entropy causality plane approach, the author categorize the stock prices in terms of the level of informational efficiency. Findings: The author reported that the efficiency level for the index of the high short interest stocks falls considerably, not only at the onset of the Covid-19 crisis but during the health crisis period at hand. This is translated into proof of less uncertainty in predicting the stock prices of these specific stocks. On the other hand, the GameStop prices exhibit the same behavior as those with the high short interest firms, but change considerably in the middle of the crisis. The reversal of the behavior, by obtaining higher informational efficiency levels, is attributed to the short squeeze frenzy that increased the price of the stock many times over. Among the stock market indices, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 decreased their efficiency levels marginally, after the surge of the crisis, while the Russell 2000 index kept the level intact. The high and stable degree of randomness could be attributed to the measures taken concurrently by the Federal Reserve and the government immediately after the outbreak of the crisis. Originality/value: This is one of the few studies that examine the impact of short selling behavior on the efficiency level of certain stocks' prices, particularly during the health public crisis. It provides an alternative approach to measuring quantitatively the degree of inefficiency and randomness. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccination on travel intentions: case of Iran

Purpose: This paper aims to examine tourists' behavioral changes in response to health crises, this study examines the individual's uncertainty and adaptability to the challenges using behavioral coping strategies. Design/methodology/approach: The study combines the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and protection motivation theory. Using the PLS-SEM technique, this study examines the relationship between the destination's competitive profits and travel intention of Iranian tourists in the post-Covid-19 pandemic. Findings: The social-support coping (Instrumental) does not incorporate tourists' adaptive behaviors. Vulnerable vaccination significantly affects the extremeness of an individual's problem-focused coping, which affects tourist's adaptive behaviors in crisis time, indicating the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccination on travel intention. Research limitations/implications: The findings may assist tourism authorities and planners develop unique tourism products and services based on tourist behavior following the health crises. Originality/value: This study contributes to development of the TPB method, indicating that visa exemption and competitive profits of a destination would motivate travel intention existing inefficacy of local government and its negative background, reshaping and thus influencing changing behavior. © 2022, Amir Hossein Qezelbash, Sarasadat Makian and Rasoul Shahabi Sorman Abadi.

A Survey of Deep Learning Techniques for the Analysis of COVID-19 and their usability for Detecting Omicron

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in December 2019 has drastically affected humans worldwide, creating a health crisis that has infected millions of lives and devastated the global economy. COVID-19 is ongoing, with the emergence of many new strains. Deep learning (DL) techniques have proven helpful in efficiently analysing and delineating infectious regions in radiological images. This survey paper draws a taxonomy of deep learning techniques for detecting COVID-19 infection in radiographic imaging modalities Chest X-Ray, and Computer Tomography. DL techniques are broadly categorised into classification, segmentation, and multi-stage approaches for COVID-19 diagnosis at the image and region-level analysis. These techniques are further classified as pre-trained and custom-made Convolutional Neural Network architectures. Furthermore, a discussion is drawn on radiographic datasets, evaluation metrics, and commercial platforms provided for detection. In the end, a brief look is paid to emerging ideas, gaps in existing research, and challenges in developing diagnostic techniques. This survey provides insight into the promising areas of research in DL and is likely to guide the research community on the upcoming development of deep learning techniques for COVID-19. This will pave the way to accelerate the research in designing customised DL-based diagnostic tools for effectively dealing with new variants of COVID-19 and emerging challenges. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Monkeypox Disease Diagnosis using Machine Learning Approach

A public health crisis has been declared due to the rapid spread of monkeypox in more than 90 nations. Early-stage monkeypox is hard to identify since it looks the same as chickenpox and measles. If confirmatory Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests are not readily available, computer-assisted detection of monkeypox lesions could be useful for surveillance and early identification of suspected cases. Applications of machine learning to image-based diagnostics, such as those used to detect cancer, tumors, and COVID-19, have shown significant gains in recent years. So, a similar technique might be used to detect monkeypox-related illness in the diagnosis process. Given this, we present a machine learning-based method for analyzing RGB images for signs of monkey pox. For this study, we used one open-source dataset. For this study, we employed 3 convolutional neural network (CNN) models and 6 machine learning classifiers (MLCs). In this work, our main contributions. First, we examine the performance of pre-trained CNN features that use a variety of MLCs. And finally, a fusion-based strategy is presented to further improve the accuracy of the diagnosis. © 2022 IEEE.

Coping style and mental health amid the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: a culture-moderated meta-analysis of 44 nations.

In the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rapid transmission of a novel virus and the unprecedented disease-mitigation measures have elicited considerable stress in many countries worldwide. Coping with pandemic stress may be differentially related to psychological symptoms across countries characterised by distinct cultural values. This study aimed to: (a) synthesise the literature by investigating the associations between some major types of coping style and psychological symptoms, and (b) investigate the moderating effects of culture on these associations. We performed a three-level random-effects meta-analysis, which included 151 independent samples from 44 countries across eight world regions (n = 137,088, 66% women, Mage = 36.08). For both problem-focused and avoidant coping styles, their hypothesised associations with psychological symptoms were robust across the countries (anxiety: rs = -.11 and .31; depression: rs = -.19 and .33; ps < .0001). For both emotion-focused and social support seeking styles, their associations with psychological symptoms were moderated by two Hofstede's cultural dimensions: uncertainty avoidance (intolerance of ambiguity) and masculinity (concern for achievement and success). The hypothesised negative coping style-symptom associations were found only in the countries with lower levels of uncertainty avoidance or masculinity, but opposite patterns of findings were found in those with higher levels of either of these two cultural dimensions.

Agritourism resilience during the COVID-19 crisis.

Resilience is critical to the sustainability of the tourism industry, which was made particularly evident during the COVID-19 crisis. COVID-19 impacted all sectors of the tourism industry revealing previously unknown strengths and weaknesses. Through a longitudinal qualitative approach, we identified the evolving challenges and coping strategies of agritourism operations under the COVID-19 crisis in North Carolina, USA. The results indicate that agritourism operations not only withstood the health crisis but also advanced the management of their operation and customer satisfaction through diversification and reorganization strategies. We use chaos theory to show how agritourism operations took advantage of the context of uncertainty to employ practices that ultimately showcased their resilience.

[Digital adaptation of a therapeutic education program in the context of Covid-19]. / Adaptation numérique d'un programme d'éducation thérapeutique dans le contexte de la Covid-19.

The context of containment due to the Covid-19 epidemic forced professionals to suspend their face-to-face therapeutic education programs. For young patients with asthma, the situation was made even more complex by anxiety-provoking communications (which turned out to be inaccurate) about the possible aggravating role of corticosteroids in the event of Covid-19, which led to untimely discontinuations and sometimes to a decrease in their therapeutic adherence, exposing them to an increased risk of poor control of their disease. Faced with the feeling of abandonment felt by some families in this singular context, a team at Trousseau Hospital in Paris decided to rethink and adapt its distance therapeutic education workshops.

Ethical conflicts among physicians and nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study.

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The healthcare system and professionals working in the sector have experienced a high caseload during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This has increased the potential for morally harmful events that violate professionals' moral codes and values. The aim of this study was to understand and explore experiences of new moral challenges emerging among physicians and nurses caring for individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: The consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) checklist was used in this qualitative study based on Gadamer's phenomenology. Participants were selected using a convenience sampling method. Thirteen medicine and nursing graduates were interviewed in depth. The participants all worked on the frontline at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were gathered in two basic healthcare districts in Spain, encompassing both primary care and hospital care. RESULTS: Four main themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) Betrayal of moral and ethical values as a key source of suffering; (2) Ethical and moral sense of failure accompanying loss of meaning; (3) Lack of confidence in performance; (4) Self-demand and self-punishment as personal condemnation among healthcare workers. CONCLUSIONS: Health institutions must implement interventions for health professionals to help mitigate the consequences of experiencing complex ethical scenarios during the pandemic. In addition, they should promote training in moral and ethical deliberation and prepare them to make decisions of great ethical significance.

The impact of COVID-19 on adolescents with eating disorders: Increased need for medical stabilization and decreased access to care.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to identify trends of patients with eating disorders (EDs) requiring hospitalization before and during the pandemic at a children's hospital in the southeastern United States. METHOD: A retrospective chart review was completed for 71 adolescents and young adults (ages 10-21 years; M = 14.61, SD = 2.121). RESULTS: Results indicated a 188% increase in ED hospital admissions since the pandemic, with patients presenting with increased rates of comorbid mental health diagnoses (p = .009). During COVID-19, the development of temporary outpatient multidisciplinary discharge plans (i.e., "bridge plans") were utilized more often due to difficulties accessing the appropriate level of care (p = .039). DISCUSSION: Results suggest a significant increase in youth requiring medical stabilization for EDs since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (2.9 times more than prepandemic), as well as a need for greater advocacy to increase specialized mental health services along the full continuum of care. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: This study brings awareness to the significant increase in patients needing medical stabilization secondary to restrictive EDs and increased rates of comorbid mental health diagnoses in this patient population since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients during COVID-19 were less likely to directly transition to treatment likely secondary to the strain COVID-19 placed on mental health systems/treatment centers. Increased advocacy for specialized care for eating disorder patients.

[Feedback from the establishment of a psychiatric regulation line at SAMU 62 in the context of Covid-19]. / Retour d'expérience de la mise en place d'une ligne de régulation psychiatrique au SAMU 62 dans le contexte Covid-19.

The epidemic context of Covid-19 and the containment measures, put in place since 16 March 2020, has significantly increased the number of emergencies calls in call center (SAMU). In the department of Pas-de-Calais, one step of the crisis measures was setting up a psychiatric regulation line, which aims to manage calls with strong emotional valence (in connexion with containment, anxiety related to the epidemic context, or break in psychiatric cares for people suffering of mental disorders). This psychiatric hotline was provided from 20 March 2020 to 15 May 2020 by fifteen psychiatric careers (psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatric nurses) from the network of the medical-psychological emergency unit (unit of the emergency call center which aims to manage people involved in psychotraumatic events). In total, 556 calls were answered, i.e. an average of 9,8 calls per day. The typology of calls was in a quarter of the cases anxiety related to the fear of being infected, in the second quarter, adjustment disorders related to containment, and for about half of the calls, psychiatrics symptoms whether it was preexisting and increased by the discontinuation of care, or context-induced. The benefits identified by this device were as follows: -the discharge of time-consuming calls for the medical dispatcher assistant, -the expertise of a mental health professional, knowing the mental health network, to make the decision more fluid. Last but not least, it is interesting to note that the presence of the psychiatric regulator in the regulation room allowed a transfer of calls and a reciprocal acculturation. In view of the relevance of the establishment of a psychiatric regulation line in the epidemic context of Covid-19, it seems interesting to consider the sustainability of this system, which is part of a global context of evolution of the provision of emergency care.