All COVID-19 News
COVID-19 Associated with Higher Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
2023 01 Feb
A study published in Cardiovascular Research found that COVID-19 is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death in both the short and long term. In the first three weeks of infection, the likelihood of COVID-19 patients dying was up to 81 times higher than uninfected individuals and remained five times higher up to 18 months later. ... Read more
What Do We Know About XBB.1.5?
2023 24 Jan
The XBB.1.5 variant is a new sub-variant of Omicron. It has been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the most transmissible variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This is because it contains specific mutations which allow it to bind better to human cells and replicate more efficiently. This increases the likelihood of transmission. ... 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
New Study Shows Telemedicine Has Clear Benefits for Patients
2022 18 Nov
Telemedicine was the most cost-effective and safest solution to offering accessible and high-quality care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Authors working on a new study by WHO/Europe and the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, provided a general review of the status of telemedicine in Europe and Central Asia. They... Read more
Machine Learning Tool Helps Hospitals Reduce Risk of COVID-19
2022 18 Nov
A machine learning tool has been created to help predict patients at high risk of developing COVID-19. The technology has been developed by a team of researchers at Imperial College London and the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) unit at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. The tool has been trained to identify risk factors associated... Read more
Foetal Brain Development Impacted by Maternal Stress During COVID-19 Pandemic
2022 09 Nov
The COVID-19 pandemic created many disruptions to everyday life, including disruptions in essential health services. To reduce the rate of transmission, many medical policies around pre and postpartum care were changed. Such changes were reported to be the most common stressors among pregnant women. Unfortunately, increased maternal stress is known... Read more
Reducing Burnout by Building Resilient Systems
2022 09 Nov
Frontline clinicians are emotionally exhausted, mentally fatigued, and pessimistic about the future, often due to the complex, inefficient environments they work in each day. Solving this requires a systems-based approach to creating highly reliable systems in healthcare. One good place to begin is by making it easier for the frontline to know what... Read more
The Shortage of Health Professionals Worldwide – A Modern Human Resources Management Challenge
2022 09 Nov
During the last 40 years, a significant global shortage in the number of health professionals of all specialties (physicians, general practitioners, nurses, laboratory technicians) has been recorded in absolute and relative figures. Given the growing demand for consumption of health services, this shortage has a serious impact on the very functioning... Read more
Increasing Care Demand and Growing Workforce Shortage
2022 09 Nov
Healthcare staff shortages are a growing global issue. At the same time, ageing populations and an increasing burden of chronic diseases are driving up demand for healthcare. The gap between rising demand and a shortage of healthcare workers is looming. HealthManagement.org spoke to Sourabh Pagaria, Executive Vice President & Managing Director of... Read more
Pandemic Erased Progress in Lowering Heart Disease Death Rate
2022 09 Nov
Before 2020, the heart disease death rate had been declining steadily for nearly a decade. The decrease was recognised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of the ten greatest public health achievements of the last century. However, the death rate has increased significantly during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. According... Read more
Statins Linked to Reduced COVID-19 Severity, Risk of Death
2022 27 Oct
A new study of more than 38,000 patients suggests that statins may reduce the risk of death and severity of COVID-19. According to Ettore Crimi, Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine and lead author of the study, statins decrease inflammation which may help reduce the severity of COVID-19. The study also shows that regular statin... Read more
#LIVES2022: High-Flow Nasal Cannula Oxygen vs Standard Oxygen Therapy - SOHO-COVID
2022 24 Oct
At the Presidents' Ground Breaking Research Release session at ESICM LIVES 2022 in Paris, Jean-Pierre Frat (Poitiers, France) presented the findings from the Standard Oxygen Versus High Flow Cannula Oxygen Therapy in Patients With Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure (SOHO-COVID) trial. COVID-19 has resulted in over six million deaths worldwide... Read more
AI-based Voice Screening App Delivers Fast and Accurate Results for Parkinson’s and Severe COVID
2022 20 Oct
A research team of engineers and neurologists from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT) developed a voice screening app that could support the early detection of Parkinson’s disease and severe COVID-19. Although common symptoms of Parkinson’s include slow movement, tremors, rigidity and imbalance, diagnosing Parkinson’s... Read more
Does Antimicrobial Resistance Affect Clinical Outcomes in the ICU?
2022 14 Oct
An overview of antimicrobial resistance and its impact on clinical outcomes in the ICU. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been defined as a major threat to healthcare and to humanity by the World Health Organization (WHO 2015). The level of evidence for the association between AMR and hospital deaths, hospital length of stay and healthcare-associated... Read more
Consumer and Professional Ratings Differ for Mental Health Apps
2022 04 Oct
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of mental health apps has vastly increased. Recent efforts have been focused on collecting the views of clinicians and academics to learn what is needed from them to improve the apps. However, understanding the views of those with mental health issues is equally important and required to ensure high quality... 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
COVID-19 Increases Type 1 Diabetes Diagnosis in Youth
2022 27 Sep
According to a study that analysed electronic health records (EHRs) of more than 1 million patients ages 18 and younger, children infected with COVID-19 show a higher risk of developing type 1 diabetes. The study is published in JAMA Network Open. Researchers report that children and adolescents who contracted COVID-19 were more prone to developing... Read more
Dexamethasone and Oxygen Support Strategies for COVID-19 Hypoxaemic Respiratory Failure
2022 20 Sep
Acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure (AHRF) is one of the main manifestations of severe COVID-19. The RECOVERY trial showed that dexamethasone 6 mg/d for ten days reduced 28-day mortality in patients with the most severe COVID-19. Another study described the benefit of high-dose dexamethasone in ARDS. However, Munch et al. found no difference between... Read more
Vitamin D Supplements and Risk of COVID-19
2022 13 Sep
Findings from two large clinical trials show that increasing vitamin D levels in adults during the COVID-19 pandemic was not associated with protection against coronavirus or other respiratory tract infections. Vitamin D has long been recognised to support innate immune responses to respiratory viruses and bacteria. Some studies show that vitamin... Read more