Air Pollutants and Their Impact on Chronic Diseases—A Retrospective Study in Bucharest, Romania

Air pollution is a serious problem in Romania, with the country ranking 13th among the most polluted countries in Europe in the 2021 World Air Quality Report. Despite the recognized impact of pollutants on health, there has been a lack of large-scale studies conducted in Romania. This study investigated the impact of air pollutants on patients with chronic respiratory, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, or metabolic diseases in Bucharest and its metropolitan area from 20 August 2018 to 1 June 2022. The daily limit values for particulate matter PM10 and PM2.5 were exceeded every month, especially during the cold season, with a decrease during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. A significant statistical correlation was found between the monthly average values of PM2.5 and PM10 and hospitalizations for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. A 10 µg/m3 increase in monthly average values resulted in a 40–60% increase in admissions for each type of pathology, translating to more than 2000 admissions for each pathology for the study period. This study highlights the urgent need for national and local measures to ensure a cleaner environment and enhance public health in Romania according to international regulations. © 2023 by the authors.

Telemedicine interventions in the management of diabetes mellitus in special epidemiological conditions

The COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented epidemiological context, has brought multiple swift changes in public policies, healthcare facilities and the daily life of individuals worldwide. While the management of infections with SARS-CoV-2 has become a priority in most medical settings, a drastic reduction in the outpatient visits for non-communicable diseases, an avoidance of hospitals and also a limitation in non-urgent medical appointments with delayed diagnosis and treatment have been reported. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a lifelong condition that requires continuous non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions to achieve and maintain adequate control of glycemic levels and of other cardiovascular risk factors. The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to increased difficulty in patients’ access to state-of-the-art diabetes care, a situation that has found its solution through the inclusion of telemedicine into routine clinical practice. These interventions have been shown to improve glycemic control, mental health, and the communication between patients with DM and their healthcare providers, while also lowering the risk of potential infections with SARS-CoV-2. The aim of this review is to describe the epidemiological context that has led to the increased usage of telemedicine in diabetes and the diversity and benefits of these interventions.

Harnessing Information Technology while Teaching in Distress: the Pandemic Toll vs. the Opportunity of Long-Awaited Paradigm Shift

Medical academic teaching has been under persistent scrutiny, while education in general underwent radical transformation in this century, when boundaries between teachers and learners are increasingly blurred and the very concept of reality is re-shaped. Based on a 2019 analysis of the two-year package comprising the biomedical informatics and biostatistics courses at a Romanian University of Medicine and Pharmacy, we conducted an ad-hoc analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic impact on our teaching. We profess that courses of information technology and data science in the medical curriculum should play a driving role in designing new educational approaches and instruments, subsequently contributing to shifting the vision of the future health professionals.