All COVID-19 News
Information Theory Maps Hospital Workflow Shifts
2025 18 Nov
Hospitals generate continuous operational data that reveal how care routines form, shift and recover. Information-theory measures provide a practical lens on these patterns without relying on averages alone. Entropy summarises how predictable laboratory ordering is across a day, while surprisal captures how unusual a specific order time is compared... Read more
Global Mortality Patterns Shift as COVID-19 Recedes
2025 03 Nov
Regular, comparable assessments of causes of death help set health priorities. Updated estimates now cover 292 causes across 204 countries and territories, plus 660 subnational locations, for each year from 1990 to 2023. The analysis combines death counts, rates and years of life lost (YLLs) and adds two intuitive measures: the probability of... Read more
Women’s Health and Arterial Ageing After COVID-19
2025 15 Oct
Dear readers, It’s time for my thoughts from the island. I read Luke Taylor’s recent article about the first major research study into women’s health following COVID-19 ( New Scientist , September 9, 2025), with great interest. The study of more than 2300 women over 50, across 16 countries, highlighted something both striking and unsettling:... Read more
Chest CT Demand Steady as Dose Levels Fall Post-COVID
2025 11 Oct
Computed tomography (CT) became central to diagnosing and monitoring COVID-19, reshaping chest imaging workflows across hospitals. Analysis of routine operational data from ten public hospitals spanning January 2019 to December 2024 shows how volumes and dose metrics evolved from the pre-pandemic period through the pandemic and into the post-pandemic... Read more
Outpatient Care Dynamics in Older Europeans from 2004 to 2022
2025 07 Oct
Understanding how older adults use outpatient care is central to planning services and safeguarding access after major disruptions. Longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe tracked 147,116 people aged 50 years or older across 27 European countries from 2004 to 2022, generating 505,607 observations. Outpatient... Read more
DL Outperforms Radiomics in Chest X-Ray Classification
2025 05 Oct
Artificial intelligence is reshaping chest radiography by automating complex image interpretation tasks and supporting multi-class diagnosis. Two prominent strategies are compared side by side: radiomics, which extracts handcrafted quantitative features, and deep learning, which learns hierarchical representations directly from images using convolutional... Read more
Best Practices for Post-COVID-19 Chest CT
2025 28 Jul
Post-COVID-19 condition, often referred to as long COVID, affects a significant number of individuals who recover from SARS-CoV-2 infection, particularly those with moderate to severe pneumonia. Persistent respiratory symptoms and chest CT abnormalities are common among these patients. However, the lack of unified terminology and standardised... Read more
Remote Breast Imaging Gains Ground
2025 28 Jul
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work reshaped many sectors of healthcare. Radiology, already well-positioned for off-site work due to its digital nature, witnessed significant adoption of home-based reading practices. Breast imaging, however, presents distinct challenges due to its close patient interaction and highly regulated... Read more
Spectral CT Reveals Airway Differences in Pneumonia Subtypes
2025 20 Jun
Quantitative computed tomography (CT) has become a valuable tool in assessing lung diseases, offering precise insights into airway alterations that are otherwise challenging to visualise. While traditionally applied to chronic conditions such as COPD and interstitial lung disease, its use in acute infections has expanded significantly since the... Read more
Cardiac Mortality Rates Postpandemic
2025 04 Jun
Studies from 15 countries show a 20–34% drop in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) hospitalisations after COVID-19 began, along with fewer cardiac procedures and, in some places, higher inpatient STEMI mortality. However, it's unclear if this reflects true changes in cardiac events, altered hospital use, or data limitations. To clarify, researchers... Read more
Improving Data Precision through Quality Assurance
2025 31 May
The increasing reliance on routinely collected administrative data has significantly shaped healthcare decision-making across the NHS. However, the accuracy of insights derived from these data is closely linked to the quality of the datasets. Inconsistencies, incomplete records or data entry anomalies can distort analyses and undermine the effectiveness... Read more
Tocilizumab, Sarilumab and Anakinra in Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19
2025 22 May
Both corticosteroids and interleukin-6 receptor antagonists (IL-6ra) - tocilizumab and sarilumab - improve survival and reduce organ support needs in hospitalised COVID-19 patients, but their comparative effectiveness is unclear. Alternative treatments may be needed due to drug access issues. Interleukin-1 (IL-1), involved in acute inflammation,... Read more
Predicting ICU Mortality with AI
2025 04 May
The development of predictive analytics in critical care has become increasingly important, particularly with the rising volume of electronic health record (EHR) data. Traditional models and proprietary tools have fallen short in handling time-dependent variables and irregular data intervals typically found in intensive care units (ICUs). Addressing... Read more
Impact of COVID-19 on Heart Rate Variability
2025 26 Mar
A study conducted at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) in Brazil, with support from FAPESP, has found that individuals who have recovered from COVID-19—even mild cases—experience short- and medium-term cardiovascular imbalances, highlighting the need for rehabilitation. Published in Scientific Reports , the study examined 130 volunteers... Read more
European Court: Doctors’ Role in COVID 19 Vaccine Administration
2025 03 Feb
On 30 January 2025, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered a pivotal judgement in case C-586/23 P, involving Italian physician Giovanni Frajese and the European Commission. This ruling has significant implications for medical practitioners administering COVID-19 vaccines, particularly concerning the necessity of medical prescriptions and doctors'... Read more
Addressing Physician Burnout: A Focus on Well-Being and Performance
2025 09 Jan
Physician burnout is a critical issue in healthcare, directly linked to key performance indicators such as patient safety and care quality. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly amplified this concern, with nearly two-thirds of physicians reporting burnout symptoms, a sharp increase from previous years. Burnout not only affects the mental health... Read more
COVID-19 Doubles Risk of Heart Attack, Stroke and Death
2024 14 Oct
COVID-19 has been linked to an increased risk of major adverse cardiac events (MACE), including heart attacks, strokes, and all-cause mortality. However, the long-term duration and underlying factors contributing to this elevated cardiovascular risk after a COVID-19 infection remain unclear. A recent study led by Cleveland Clinic and the University... Read more
Urgency to Extend Telehealth Prescribing Flexibilities for Controlled Substances
2024 14 Oct
As the end of the year approaches, telehealth advocates are raising alarms about the potential expiration of virtual prescribing flexibilities for controlled substances. These temporary allowances, enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, have provided critical access to essential treatments for patients across the United States, particularly those... Read more
Reduced Risk of CVD After COVID Vaccination
2024 07 Oct
The primary goal of COVID-19 vaccination is to reduce the risk of infection, complications, and fatalities. However, the vaccine may also pose a small risk for certain cardiovascular events. The European Medicines Agency has identified myocarditis and pericarditis as very rare adverse effects (fewer than 1 in 10,000 cases) following mRNA vaccination... Read more
Pleural Effusion in COVID-19 Patients
2024 07 Oct
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted global healthcare systems, with patient outcomes varying widely from asymptomatic cases to severe illnesses, resulting in high mortality. Understanding which factors contribute to poor prognosis is crucial in managing the disease effectively. Chest imaging has been pivotal in diagnosing and assessing... Read more