EXEC COVID-19 News
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
FDA Approves COVID-19 Vaccine for Children Under Five
2022 19 Jun
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given emergency use authorisation to the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for children under five. Vaccine advisors at the CDC have voted unanimously in support of the measure. As a result, the COVID-19 vaccine can now be given to children as young as six months old. The Pfizer vaccine is good for... Read more
The Nursing Workforce Needs Greater Investment
2022 13 May
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) released its International Nurses Day (IND) toolkit on 12 May 2022, a report that provides multisectoral guidance to nursing stakeholders globally. In releasing this document, ICN’s goal is to support the implementation of the WHO Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery: 2021-2025 (SDNM) . The... Read more
Digitalisation in Healthcare – Embracing Digital Front Doors
2022 29 Apr
Herbert Staehr serves as Global Head of Transforming Care Delivery for Siemens Healthineers, driving the company’s activities and messaging around delivering high-value care. In this capacity, he develops and executes programmes and outreach strategies aimed at healthcare providers around the world, as well as stakeholders in every branch of the healthcare... Read more
Vaccines Provide Everyone a Chance to Live a Fulfilling Life
2022 25 Apr
The World Health Organization (WHO) will focus on the theme of ‘Long Life for All’ for World Immunization Week, 24-30 April 2022. The goal is to bring people to understand that vaccines let us to pursue our dreams, protect our loved ones, and make it possible for us to live a long & healthy life. Every April, World Immunization Week brings people fr Read more
The Omicron XE Variant
2022 14 Apr
Omicron XE is spreading in the U.K. and elsewhere. This variant comes as the U.K. faces a surge of new COVID-19 infections. Currently, 1 in 14 people (6.9% of the population) are estimated to test positive for COVID-19. This variant is a hybrid of Omicron: BA.1 (the original Omicron strain) and BA.2 (the more infectious and dominant strain in... Read more
The Impact of Staffing Shortages on Patient Safety
2022 12 Apr
A recent study published in the American Journal of Infection Control showed that staff shortages and the extra burden on hospitals caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could increase the number of acquired infections and threaten patient care. The study examined hospital-acquired infections at two hospitals in Illinois between September 2017 and... Read more
UK Healthcare Workforce Recovery After the COVID-19 Pandemic
2022 24 Mar
The BMJ and the Nuffield Trust recently hosted a roundtable discussion concerning the issue of workforce retention in the UK’s NHS – why workers leave the NHS and how staff wellbeing and retention can be improved. Also under discussion was the Nuffield Trust report, ‘The Long Goodbye’ which provided statistics on the alarming high portion of healthcare... Read more