The Challenges of Urological Research in COVID-19 Era: Lessons Learned for Immediate Response to the Pandemic.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Ghoreifi A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9023368 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
The Challenges of Urological Research in COVID-19 Era: Lessons Learned for Immediate Response to the Pandemic.
Ghoreifi Alireza A Sobhani Sina S Moghaddam Farshad Sheybaee FS Djaladat Hooman H
Urology 20220422
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Project description:The recipients of NIH's Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) have worked for over a decade to build informatics infrastructure in support of clinical and translational research. This infrastructure has proved invaluable for supporting responses to the current COVID-19 pandemic through direct patient care, clinical decision support, training researchers and practitioners, as well as public health surveillance and clinical research to levels that could not have been accomplished without the years of ground-laying work by the CTSAs. In this paper, we provide a perspective on our COVID-19 work and present relevant results of a survey of CTSA sites to broaden our understanding of the key features of their informatics programs, the informatics-related challenges they have experienced under COVID-19, and some of the innovations and solutions they developed in response to the pandemic. Responses demonstrated increased reliance by healthcare providers and researchers on access to electronic health record (EHR) data, both for local needs and for sharing with other institutions and national consortia. The initial work of the CTSAs on data capture, standards, interchange, and sharing policies all contributed to solutions, best illustrated by the creation, in record time, of a national clinical data repository in the National COVID-19 Cohort Collaborative (N3C). The survey data support seven recommendations for areas of informatics and public health investment and further study to support clinical and translational research in the post-COVID-19 era.
| S-EPMC8209435 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The first year of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been a year of unprecedented changes, scientific breakthroughs, and controversies. The radiology community has not been spared from the challenges imposed on global healthcare systems. Radiology has played a crucial part in tackling this pandemic, either by demonstrating the manifestations of the virus and guiding patient management, or by safely handling the patients and mitigating transmission within the hospital. Major modifications involving all aspects of daily radiology practice have occurred as a result of the pandemic, including workflow alterations, volume reductions, and strict infection control strategies. Despite the ongoing challenges, considerable knowledge has been gained that will guide future innovations. The aim of this review is to provide the latest evidence on the role of imaging in the diagnosis of the multifaceted manifestations of COVID-19, and to discuss the implications of the pandemic on radiology departments globally, including infection control strategies and delays in cancer screening. Lastly, the promising contribution of artificial intelligence in the COVID-19 pandemic is explored.
| S-EPMC8245753 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study aims to provide an investigation of the containment and mitigation strategies encompassing the entirety of the pandemic in Taiwan. This descriptive, observational study used COVID-19 data from Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, and analysed news releases from the Taiwanese health authority. Statistics provided evidence of outbreak severity through infection and mortality rates, while qualitative results from the document review offered insights on the actions taken by the government chronologically from 2 February 2020 to 31 December 2022. All three countries experienced significant infection peaks in 2022. Taiwan had two distinct peaks, one in late May and another in October. South Korea had a single, high peak in late March, while Japan experienced multiple smaller waves, the biggest wave in August. Similarly, weekly mortality rates peaked in 2022 for all three countries after a surge in their infected cases, with Taiwan (5.15/100 000) and South Korea (4.69/100 000) having higher rates than Japan (1.65/100 000). Results from qualitative analysis showed that Taiwan's early containment measures might have delayed the epidemic curve, allowing time for better preparation and proactive responses. However, the lack of a clear transition plan and the vulnerability of the elderly population contributed to higher mortality and infection rates. Despite ongoing challenges, Taiwan avoided nationwide lockdowns and relied on targeted restrictions to control transmission of the virus. Results of this article offer the narratives, reflections, and experiences from the case of Taiwan which may potentially present promising opportunities for impact in other settings and for future pandemics.
| S-EPMC11832153 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Global health education programs should strive continually to improve the quality of education, increase access, create communities that foster excellence in global health practices, and ensure sustainability. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the University of Minnesota's extensive global health education programs, which includes a decade of hybrid online and in-person programing, to move completely online. We share our experience, a working framework for evaluating global health educational programming, and lessons learned. Over the decades we have moved from a predominantly passive, lecture-based, in-person course to a hybrid online (passive) course with an intensive hands-on 2-week requirement. The pandemic forced us to explore new active online learning models. We retained our on-demand, online passive didactics, which used experts' time efficiently and was widely accessible and well received. In addition, we developed a highly effective synchronous online component that we felt replaced some of the hands-on activities effectively and led us to develop new and innovative "hands-on" experiences. This new, fully online model combining quality asynchronous and synchronous learning provided many unanticipated advantages, such as increasing access while decreasing our carbon footprint dramatically. By sharing our experience, lessons learned, and resources, we hope to inspire other programs likewise to innovate to improve quality, access, community, and sustainability in global health, especially if these innovations can help decrease negative aspects of global health education such as its environmental impact.
| S-EPMC8641357 | biostudies-literature
Project description:With the issues of crowd control and physical distancing becoming central to disease prevention measures, one would expect that crowd research should become a focus of attention during the Covid-19 pandemic era. However, I will show, based on a variety of metrics, that not only has this not been the case, but also, the first two years of the pandemic have posed an undisputable setback to the development and growth of crowd science. Without intervention, this could potentially aggravate further and cause a long-lasting recession in this field. This article, in addition to documenting and highlighting this issue, aims to outline potential avenues through which crowd research can reshape itself in the era of Covid-19 pandemic, maintain its pre-pandemic momentum and even further expand the diversity of its topics. Despite significant changes that the pandemic has brought to human life, issues related to congregation and mobility of pedestrians, building fires, crowd incidents, rallying crowds and the like have not disappeared from societies and remain relevant. Moreover, the diversity of pandemic-related problems itself creates a rich ground for making novel scientific discoveries. This could provide grounds for establishing fresh dimensions in crowd dynamics research. These potential new dimensions extend to all areas of this field including numerical and experimental investigations, crowd psychology and applications of computer vision and artificial intelligence methods in crowd management. The Covid-19 pandemic may have posed challenges to crowd researchers but has also created ample potential opportunities. This is further evidenced by reviewing efforts taken thus far in pandemic-related crowd research.
| S-EPMC9095433 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveAnnotated clinical samples taken from patients are a foundation of translational medical research and give mechanistic insight into drug trials. Prior research by the Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre (TDCC) indicated that researchers, particularly those in industry, face many barriers in accessing patient samples. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic to the UK produced an immediate and extreme shockwave, which impacted on the ability to undertake all crucial translational research. As a national coordination centre, the TDCC is tasked with improving efficiency in the biobanking sector. Thus, we took responsibility to identify and coordinate UK tissue sample collection organisations (biobanks) able to collect COVID-19-related samples for researchers between March and September 2020.FindingsAlmost a third of UK biobanks were closed during the first wave of the UK COVID-19 pandemic. Of the remainder, 43% had limited capabilities while 26% maintained normal activity. Of the nationally prioritised COVID-19 interventional studies, just three of the five that responded to questioning were collecting human samples. Of the 41 requests for COVID-19 samples received by the TDCC, only four could be fulfilled due to a lack of UK coordinated strategy. Meanwhile, in the background there are numerous reports that sample collections in the UK remain largely underutilised.ConclusionThe response to a pandemic demands high level co-ordinated research responses to reduce mortality. Our study highlights the lack of efficiency and coordination between human sample collections and clinical trials across the UK. UK sample access is not working for researchers, clinicians or patients. A radical change is required in the strategy for sample collection and distribution to maximise this valuable resource of human-donated samples.
| S-EPMC9013782 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Despite the increasing popularity of translation research, few studies have described the process and challenges involved in implementing a translation study. The main objective was to determine whether a multi-component group behavioral intervention could be successfully translated from an academic setting into the community health system of federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in Miami, NY, and NJ. Key challenges and "lessons learned" from the dissemination and implementation process for the SMART/EST (Stress Management And Relaxation Training/Emotional Supportive Therapy) Women's Project (SWP) III in low-resource primary care settings are described. The Reach Effectiveness Adoption Implementation Maintenance (RE-AIM) model served as the theoretical framework for the translation of the study. This study outlines several essential factors related to Glasgow's RE-AIM model that need to be considered in order to accomplish successful translation of evidence-based interventions from traditional academia to "real-world" community health center settings.
| S-EPMC4444700 | biostudies-other
Project description:BackgroundCOVID-19 mitigation strategies have had an untold effect on food retail stores and restaurants. Early evidence from New York City (NYC) indicated that these strategies, among decreased travel from China and increased fears of viral transmission and xenophobia, were leading to mass closures of businesses in Manhattan's Chinatown. The constantly evolving COVID -19 crisis has caused research design and methodology to fundamentally shift, requiring adaptable strategies to address emerging and existing public health problems such as food security that may result from closures of food outlets.ObjectiveWe describe innovative approaches used to evaluate changes to the food retail environment amidst the constraints of the pandemic in an urban center heavily burdened by COVID-19. Included are challenges faced, lessons learned and future opportunities.MethodsFirst, we identified six diverse neighborhoods in NYC: two lower-resourced, two higher-resourced, and two Chinese ethnic enclaves. We then developed a census of food outlets in these six neighborhoods using state and local licensing databases. To ascertain the status (open vs. closed) of outlets pre-pandemic, we employed a manual web-scraping technique. We used a similar method to determine the status of outlets during the pandemic. Two independent online sources were required to confirm the status of outlets. If two sources could not confirm the status, we conducted phone call checks and/or in-person visits.ResultsThe final baseline database included 2585 food outlets across six neighborhoods. Ascertaining the status of food outlets was more difficult in lower-resourced neighborhoods and Chinese ethnic enclaves compared to higher-resourced areas. Higher-resourced neighborhoods required fewer phone call and in-person checks for both restaurants and food retailers than other neighborhoods.ConclusionsOur multi-step data collection approach maximized safety and efficiency while minimizing cost and resources. Challenges in remote data collection varied by neighborhood and may reflect the different resources or social capital of the communities; understanding neighborhood-specific constraints prior to data collection may streamline the process.
| S-EPMC9014275 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Clinical research studies have navigated many changes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to describe the pandemic's impact on research operations in the context of a clinical genomics research consortium that aimed to enroll a majority of participants from underrepresented populations. We interviewed (July to November 2020) and surveyed (May to August 2021) representatives of six projects in the Clinical Sequencing Evidence-Generating Research (CSER) consortium, which studies the implementation of genome sequencing in the clinical care of patients from populations that are underrepresented in genomics research or are medically underserved. Questions focused on COVID's impact on participant recruitment, enrollment, and engagement, and the transition to teleresearch. Responses were combined and thematically analyzed. Projects described factors at the project, institutional, and community levels that affected their experiences. Project factors included the project's progress at the pandemic's onset, the urgency of in-person clinical care for the disease being studied, and the degree to which teleresearch procedures were already incorporated. Institutional and community factors included institutional guidance for research and clinical care and the burden of COVID on the local community. Overall, being responsive to community experiences and values was essential to how CSER navigated evolving challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.
| S-EPMC9839535 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Purpose of this reviewWe discuss the role of observational studies and cardiac registries during the COVID-19 pandemic. We focus on published cardiac registries and highlight contributions to the field that have had clinical implications.Recent findingsWe included observational studies of COVID-19 patients published in peer-reviewed medical journals with defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, defined study design, and primary outcomes. A PubMed and MEDLINE literature review results in 437 articles, of which 52 include patients with COVID-19 with cardiac endpoints. From July 2020 to December 2021, the average time from last data collected to publication was 8.9 ± 4.1 months, with an increasing trend over time (R = 0.9444, p < 0.0001). Of the 52 articles that met our inclusion criteria, we summarize main findings of 4 manuscripts on stroke, 14 on acute coronary syndrome, 4 on cardiac arrest, 7 on heart failure, 7 on venous thromboembolism, 5 on dysrhythmia, and 11 on different populations at risk for cardiovascular. Registries are cost effective, not disruptive to essential health services, and can be rapidly disseminated with short intervals between last data point collected and publication. In less than 2 years, cardiac registries have filled important gaps in knowledge and informed the care of COVID-19 patients with cardiovascular conditions.
| S-EPMC8981885 | biostudies-literature