COVID-19, a tale of two pandemics: novel coronavirus and fake news messaging.

The emergence of COVID-19, caused by novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, became a pandemic in just 10 weeks. Without effective medications or vaccines available, authorities turned toward mitigation measures such as use of face masks, school's closings, shelter-in-place, telework and social distancing. People found refuge on the internet and social media apps; however, there was a proliferation of instant messaging containing hoaxed, deliberate misleading information: fake news messaging (FNM). The aim of this study was to assess FNM through content analysis and to discriminate them in a proposed taxonomy structure. A sample of convenience of messages, memes, tweets or cartoons in several languages was selected from the most popular social media outlets, i.e. Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter etc. More than 300 FNM were identified. Descriptive statistics were used for highlighting potential relationships between variables. Content analysis determined that FNM could be divided into Health- and non-health-related types. There are several sub-types considering, but not limited to, religious beliefs, politics, economy, nutrition, behaviors, prevention of the infection, the origin of the disease and conspiracy theories. The parallel FNM pandemic affected the response from an already debilitated public health system through the confusion created in the community and the erosion in the credibility of genuine media. Public health practitioners had to face people's unpredictable behaviors, panic, tensions with the communities and, in some cases, a hostile climate toward frontline workers. Public health practitioners must adjust ongoing and future health promotion and education interventions including plans to neutralize fake news messages.

A national study of breast and colorectal cancer patients' decision-making for novel personalized medicine genomic diagnostics.

AIM: Molecular diagnostics are increasingly being used to help guide decision-making for personalized medical treatment of breast and colorectal cancer patients. The main aim of this study was to better understand and determine breast and colorectal cancer patients' decision-making strategies and the trade-offs they make in deciding about characteristics of molecular genomic diagnostics for breast and colorectal cancer. PATIENTS & METHODS: We surveyed a nationally representative sample of 300 breast and colorectal cancer patients using a previously developed web-administered instrument. Eligibility criteria included patients aged 18 years and older with either breast or colorectal cancer. We explored several attributes and attribute levels of molecular genomic diagnostics in 20 scenarios. RESULTS: Our analysis revealed that both breast and colorectal cancer patients weighted the capability of molecular genomic diagnostics to determine the probability of treatment efficacy as being of greater importance than information provided to detect adverse events. The probability of either false-positive or -negative results was ranked highly as a potential barrier by both breast and colorectal patients. However, 78.6% of breast cancer patients ranked the possibility of a 'false-negative test result leading to undertreatment' higher than the 'chance of a false positive, which may lead to overtreatment' (68%). This finding contrasted with the views of colorectal cancer patients who ranked the chance of a false positive as being of greater concern than a false negative (72.8 vs 63%). Overall, cancer patients exhibited a high willingness to accept and pay for genomic diagnostic tests, especially among breast cancer patients. Cancer patients seek a test accuracy rate of 90% or higher. Breast and colorectal cancer patients' decisions about genomic diagnostics are influenced more by the probability of being cured than by avoiding potential severe adverse events. CONCLUSION: This study provides insights into the relative weight that breast and colorectal cancer patients place on various aspects of molecular genomic diagnostics, and the trade-offs they are willing to make among attributes of such tests.

A method to measure clinical practice patterns of breast cancer genomic diagnostics in health systems.

Personalized genomic diagnostics, often in combination with targeted therapeutics, have become an important component of clinical oncologic practice over the last decade. However, there is a dearth of studies examining utilization of specific genomic diagnostics and their influence on clinical practice patterns in health systems. In order to begin to explore and understand the clinical utility of particular genomic diagnostics in current use, we developed an instrument to collect data on utilization and clinical practice patterns in health systems. We focused our efforts on gene-expression profiling (GEP) assays, particularly on a commonly used GEP in breast cancer: Oncotype DX® (Genomic Health, Inc., CA, USA). This article presents a method we have developed for the retrospective collection of data on the utilization of GEP among breast cancer patients of a real-world, real-time health system.

Estreptoquinasa intravenosa en el infarto agudo del miocardio en un hospital comunitario

El beneficio de la terapia con trombolisis en el infarto agudo del miocardio ha sido ampliamente documentado en muchos estudios multicéntricos. Aquí se demuestra que la terapia con estreptoquinasa intravenosa en dosis más pequeñas obtiene beneficios similares con complicaciones menores y que este tratamiento se puede practicar en unidades de cuidado intensivo de hospitales de la comunidad, sin equipos de hemodinamia sofisticados. En la unidad de cuidado intensivo del Hospital Bocagrande en Cartagena se estudiaron 19 pacientes con infarto agudo del miocardio, de menos 6 horas de evolución desde el comienzo del dolor. recibieron estreptoquinasa en dosis de 750.000 unidaes en infusión intravenosa siguiendo un protocolo previamente establecido. La evaluación de la respuesta al tratamiento se hizo tomando en consideración parámetros de carácter no invasivo. La tasa de mortalidad en estos pacientes fue de 5 por ciento. La tasa de reperfusión fue de 68.4 por ciento y hubo una alta tasa de angina post-infarto, la cual respondió satisfactoriamente a tratamiento farmacológico