EXEC COVID-19 News
Accelerating Healthcare Transformation through Leadership Competencies
2024 11 Jul
The COVID-19 pandemic has undeniably accelerated the adoption of digital healthcare technologies by both providers and consumers. In response, numerous companies have ventured into the healthcare arena, offering services such as pharmaceutical deliveries, telehealth visits, concierge primary care, and a myriad of other e-health solutions. This... Read more
Bridging the Gap in Organ Transplants: Power in Technology, Data & Support
2024 27 Jun
Transplant surgeons continuously grapple with the daunting challenge of organ shortages, a struggle exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Technological advancements and medical research have improved post-transplant survival rates, but these successes have also heightened the organ demand. Innovative techniques and data-driven approaches are essential... Read more
Director-General’s Award: Barbados PM & mRNA Vaccine Developers Honored for COVID-19 Efforts
2024 27 May
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus presented his Award for Global Health to the Prime Minister of Barbados and two scientists for their contributions to advancing global health at the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly. The Director-General’s Award for Global Health, established in 2019, goes to Her Excellency, Mia Mottley,... Read more
Moderna Wins COVID Shot Patent Case Against Pfizer-BioNTech in Europe
2024 17 May
Moderna said on Friday the European Patent Office had upheld the validity of one of the company's key patents, a win in an ongoing COVID-19 vaccine dispute with Pfizer and BioNTech The company has been locked in a legal battle with Pfizer-BioNTech over their COVID shot Comirnaty after suing them in 2022 for allegedly copying its mRNA technology.... Read more
Implementation of Remote Monitoring Solutions: Barriers & Facilitators
2024 16 May
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of remote healthcare pathways worldwide, moving away from traditional face-to-face models. This shift includes integrating telemedicine and remote monitoring solutions, which offer advantages such as reducing viral exposure risk and providing quality care remotely. The concept of "virtual wards"... Read more
Novavax & Sanofi to Co-commercialize COVID-19 Vaccine & Develop Combo Vaccines
2024 10 May
Agreement provides individuals with broader access to a protein-based non-mRNA adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine through combined commercial strength, from 2025 onwards Provides Novavax with cash and an equity investment totalling approximately $1.2 billion (upfront payment of $500 million and up to $700 million in additional development, regulatory... Read more
AstraZeneca Says it Will Withdraw COVID-19 Vaccine Globally as Demand Dips
2024 08 May
AstraZeneca said on Tuesday it had initiated the worldwide withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccine due to a "surplus of available updated vaccines" since the pandemic. The company also said it would proceed to withdraw the vaccine Vaxzevria's marketing authorizations within Europe. "As multiple, variant COVID-19 vaccines have since... Read more
Long-term Impact of Telemedicine Adoption on Outcomes, Spending and ER Visits
2024 30 Apr
During the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine saw a significant surge in usage, which has persisted even after the initial spike. This was facilitated by temporary regulatory changes and reimbursement expansions by various payers. Congress extended Medicare's coverage of telemedicine until December 2024, but without further action, this coverage... Read more
Google's HeAR: New AI Tool for Health Monitoring Through Sound Analysis
2024 05 Apr
A team of Google scientists has unveiled a groundbreaking machine-learning tool named Health Acoustic Representations (HeAR) designed to detect and monitor various health conditions by analysing sounds like coughing and breathing. This innovative artificial intelligence (AI) system, trained on an extensive dataset comprising millions of human audio... Read more
Long COVID Symptoms: Researchers Highlight Role of Enzyme-Like Antibodies
2024 04 Apr
Researchers at UVA Health, led by Dr. Steven L. Zeichner, have discovered a potential explanation for some of the mysteries surrounding COVID-19 and long COVID. They found that COVID-19 can induce the production of antibodies, termed "abzymes," that mimic enzymes regulating essential body functions like blood pressure, blood clotting, and inflammation.... Read more
Lockdowns Linked to Skin Cancer Delays Costing €7bn in Europe
2024 17 Feb
Delays in the diagnosis of skin cancer, attributed to the COVID-19 lockdowns, have resulted in an estimated 100,000 years of life being lost and a financial impact of €7.1 billion across Europe, a recent study suggests. This research, disclosed last Friday in the Jama Network Open journal, underscores the severe outcomes of the 2020 and... Read more
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet award the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology
2023 05 Oct
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.The discoveries by the two Nobel Laureates were... Read more
Patient Experiences in Hospitals Change Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
2023 31 Aug
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic posed unparalleled challenges for acute-care hospitals. To control the spread of COVID-19 infection, hospitals adopted new protocols, including social distancing and restricted visitor access. A recent cohort study looked to describe differences in 2020 to 2021 patient experiences to assess whether the... Read more
Major Healthcare Impacts of COVID-19
2022 21 Dec
“Health at a Glance: Europe 2022” outlines the impact of the pandemic on health services across Europe, from primary care to hospital treatment, and the disruptions this placed on the care delivered to non-COVID-19 patients. The pandemic and the measures implemented to prevent transmission of the virus led to an unprecedented decline in people’s... Read more
Ten High-Income Countries Report the Effects of COVID-19 Burnout on Primary Care Physicians
2022 02 Dec
According to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund, the COVID-19 pandemic increased the workloads of many primary care physicians, which led to widespread burnout, and impacted the quality of care. This has been the case in all 10 surveyed high-income countries. The report compares changes in physician workload, stress, emotional distress,... Read more
Newly Funded Project Aims to Monitor Impact of COVID-19 Variants
2022 04 Oct
A three-year project, known as END-VOC, will analyse data from 28 established cohort studies in 23 countries, collaborating with 19 partners across the world. This large-scale study, funded by the European Commission, and led by UCL, aims to collect this data to better detect and improve understanding of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. The purpose is... Read more
Schadenfreude is not acceptable! How German Journalism Gets Me
2022 26 Aug
My dear readers, It is time for thoughts from the island again. Before I share more, I hope you are all okay – despite the heat waves. As I said in my previous articles, what will be next? What else do we have to overcome, or is this our future - living and dealing with extreme situations, i.e. pandemics, war, climate chaos etc.? This... Read more
Is Nursing Without a Mask Strange?
2022 22 Jul
Before I go on my annual leave, I thought I'd drop a line. Last week I did my first shift in a little private hospital in my hometown. When I arrived on the ward, I called in at the Sister's office. As I headed towards her door, I realised I was the only nurse wearing a mask. I was still in my civilian clothes, and as I said, my mask was... Read more
Impact of COVID on violence against healthcare – report published by ICN, ICRC, IHF and WMA
2022 19 Jul
Survey results show that the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened violence against healthcare, with a documented increase of incidents in many countries. Health personnel and their patients, as well as healthcare facilities and ambulances, are subject to persistent acts of violence in all regions of the world. The results of a global survey conducted... Read more
Omicron Has Half the Risk of Long COVID Compared to Delta
2022 21 Jun
New research shows that the Omicron variant is less likely to cause Long-COVID compared to the Delta variant. The findings are published in The Lancet. This is the first peer-reviewed study to report the risk of Long-COVID associated with the Omicron variant. As per the NICE guidelines, Long-COVID is defined as new or ongoing symptoms four weeks... Read more