Association of Non-traditional Indicators of Readers' Engagement With Traditional Dissemination Metrics of COVID-19-Related Research.

INTRODUCTION:  Researchers are increasingly interested in appraising the impact of their research work, which eventually drives public perception. The overall impact of a study can only be gauged if we consider both traditional and non-traditional dissemination patterns. Hence, we preferred to study the association between the non-traditional reader engagement metrics and traditional dissemination metrics in relation to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related research published in five high-impact peer-reviewed medical journals. METHOD:  This observational study was conducted using data sourced from Altmetric, including the Altmetric attention score (AAS), an aggregate score of an article's dissemination. New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), Lancet Infectious Diseases, Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID), Chest Journal (CHEST), and Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) were included in the study based on the prevalence of COVID-19-related original research published in each of them. The number of citations was framed as the reference for traditional metrics. To avoid artificial variance, data were collected on the same day, November 13, 2022. Correlational analyses were performed using the Pearson correlation coefficient using Minitab 17 (Minitab Inc., State College, PA). The relationship between the variables was considered very weak if r<0.3, weak if r: 0.3 to 0.5, moderate if r: 0.5 to 0.7, and strong for r>0.7. RESULTS:  We found a very weak correlation between citations and AAS for Clinical Infectious Diseases, Lancet Infectious Diseases, and CHEST, whereas the correlation was moderate for NEJM and JAMA. The correlation between citations and Twitter mentions was very weak for Clinical Infectious Disease, Lancet Infectious Disease, and CHEST, but it improved for NEJM and JAMA. There was a very weak correlation between citations and news mentions for Clinical Infectious Diseases, Lancet Infectious Diseases, and CHEST. CONCLUSION:  Our study highlights that the traditional indicator, i.e., citation has a very weak to moderate correlation with the AAS and it doesn't capture the entire influence of a research publication. Also, the current method of determining a journal's impact factor doesn't take this disparity into consideration. Hence, there needs to have a more inclusive strategy to define the impact of scientific research on the general population in real-time.

COVID-19 Mortality and Therapeutics in Nebraska and Southwest Iowa during Early Pandemic.

Different pharmacotherapeutics have been introduced, and then stopped or continued, for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. We evaluated the risks associated with mortality from SARS-CoV-2 infection. METHODS: Data was concurrently or retrospectively captured on COVID-19 hospitalized patients from 6 regional hospitals within the health system. Demographic details, the source of SARS-CoV-2 infection, concomitant disease status, as well as the therapeutic agents used for treating SARS-CoV-2 (e.g., antimicrobials, dexamethasone, convalescent plasma, tocilizumab, and remdesivir) were recorded. Discrete and continuous variables were analyzed using SPSS (ver. 27). Logistic regression identified variables significantly correlated with mortality. RESULTS: 471 patients (admitted from 1 March 2020 through 15 July 2020) were reviewed. Mean (±SD) age and body weight (kg) were 62.5 ± 17.7 years and 86.3 ± 27.1 kg, respectively. Patients were Caucasian (50%), Hispanic (34%), African-American (10%), or Asian (5%). Females accounted for 52% of patients. Therapeutic modalities used for COVID-19 illness included remdesivir (16%), dexamethasone (35%), convalescent plasma (17.8%), and tocilizumab (5.8%). The majority of patients returned home (62%) or were transferred to a skilled nursing facility (23%). The overall mortality from SARS-CoV-2 was 14%. Logistic regression identified variables significantly correlated with mortality. Intubation, receipt of dexamethasone, African-American or Asian ethnicity, and being a patient from a nursing home were significantly associated with mortality (x2 = 86.36 (13) p < 0.0005). CONCLUSIONS: SARS-CoV-2 infected hospitalized patients had significant mortality risk if they were intubated, received dexamethasone, were of African-American or Asian ethnicity, or occupied a nursing home bed prior to hospital admission.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults: A rare sequela of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults (MIS-A) came to attention back in June 2020, when the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) received initial reports regarding patients who had presented delayed and multisystem involvement of the disease, with clinical course resembling multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). This study introduces a case of MIS-A, where the patient presented 3 weeks after initial COVID-19 exposure. His clinical course was consistent with the working definition of MIS-A as specified by the CDC. Aggressive supportive care in the intensive care unit, utilization of advanced heart failure devices, and immunomodulatory therapeutics (high-dose steroids, anakinra, intravenous immunoglobulin) led to clinical recovery. Management of MIS-A is a topic of ongoing research and needs more studies to elaborate on treatment modalities and clinical predictors.