Top Stories: May 2021
From loosening COVID-19 policies to pushback against historic title norms, there is quite a bit going on in Emergency Medicine! Here are some of the articles we read this month.
Emergency Physicians Monthly
“Throughout my soon to be 40-year career in emergency medicine there were three things you could always count on: taxes, death and rising numbers of patients coming to the emergency department.
It seemed that no matter what we did, we couldn’t keep up with the increased volume. I once knew an emergency department director who was on the building committee charged with planning for the size of his future ED. When asked what kind of volumes they should plan for, he gave a number that he thought was high at the time. Building was delayed and by the time the ED was built the actual annual volume was twice his highest estimate.”
American Osteopathic Association
“Position Statement: The American Osteopathic Association calls for truth in advertising, intellectual honesty and transparency with the use of professional designations of non-physician clinicians in service of the public interest. We also call for organized, collaborative discussions among stakeholder organizations in the Physician, Advanced Practice Registered Nurse and Physician Assistant communities to find common ground on these important topics.”
From Health Affairs: More Patients Fail To Seek ER Care During COVID-19
Health Affairs
“A new study, released ahead of print by Health Affairs, evaluated emergency medical services (EMS) call data from the Boston area between March 15 and June 8, 2020, to better understand patients’ reluctance to call EMS for cardiac-related care. The authors found that during this period, cardiac-related EMS calls in Boston decreased 27.2 percent, calls with hospital transportation refusal increased 32.5 percent, and OHCA incidence increased 35.5 percent compared with baselines. The authors also found that throughout Boston’s neighborhoods, OHCA incidence was significantly associated with decreased cardiac-related calls, but not with COVID-19 infection rates.”
WHO validates Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use and issues interim policy recommendations
World Health Organization
“WHO today validated the Sinovac-CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, giving countries, funders, procuring agencies and communities the assurance that it meets international standards for safety, efficacy and manufacturing. The vaccine is produced by the Beijing-based pharmaceutical company Sinovac.”
South Korea’s Implementation Of A COVID-19 National Testing Strategy
Health Affairs
“Two months after the first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was confirmed in early 2020, South Korea was commended by many international partners for its efforts to contain the outbreak and avoid regional lockdown. This is particularly notable considering that it became the second most infected country after China by March 2020. Much of South Korea’s success in addressing the current pandemic has been attributed to lessons learned from their response to a deadly outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015, including a national testing strategy.”
Janssen single-dose Covid vaccine approved by UK
BBC
“A single-dose Covid vaccine made by Janssen has been approved for use in the UK by the medicines regulator.”
