25th in the series of WACEM-ACAIM Joint Group Meetings
COVID lessons, by Dr. Sagar Galwankar:
The pandemic highlighted a variety of problems - from the disease itself, people involved, supply and demand dynamics, hysteria. Practices lacking an evidence base were taking place generously. It is interesting to note and important to recognize the sometimes apparent but sometimes subtle difference between improvised practice versus compromised practice. With time and experience; with data, papers, analyses - solutions also came to light, in fact some are solutions are still evolving.
Case based learning, by Dr. Chauhan:
Dr. Chauhan presented an unusual case of a young patient who died from a short neurological presentation with fever. The case had symptoms and signs, and events suggestive of rabies, alongside symptoms of COVID with a positive PCR test. We talked about the neurological presentations of COVID-19, as well as the potential to activate or exaggerate other concurrent illnesses, whether viral, bacterial, other or mixed causalities.
POCUS/CT in COVID in the Netherlands, by Dr. Prabath;
This presentation, including a summary of an exciting study, talked about the use of point of care ultrasound and CT scans and their predictive values and usage in COVID-19. Coming to the conclusion that POCUS was indeed found to have excellent negative predictive value in the hands of trained users, however CT was the better imaging modality for ruling-in a diagnosis and providing further information.
Environmental Coronology, by Dr. Thakur:
Dr. Thakur's presentation was not only a nifty recap of the coronavirus, but also provided an insightful look at the environmental impact of COVID-19 and the impact of the environment on COVID-19 as well. Where it is fairly easy to become hyperfocused on singular aspects of the disease, the pandemic made us learn to divide our focus, necessitating the process of prioritization - to think about human factors, PPE, supply chain dynamics, diagnostics, data, and ever-changing discussions.
Supply-chain resilience, by Prof. Venkat:
This much talked about topic reminded us of the behind-the-curtains processes that never ceased to persevere through the pandemic in its efforts to keep the "system" running. Apart from the vast array of clinical problems, this working and resilience of the supply chain - transport, waste management, equipment provision, etc. has also had its hurdles. Through a joint process of collaboration and innovation, perhaps the reason it is so under-recognized is because of how well it has coped.
Telemedicine in Italian COVID-19, by Dr. Salvatore:
Italy was one of the pioneers for pushing the concept and demonstrating the execution of telemedicine in COVID-19. Circumstances necessitated innovation, quick-thinking, and optimal utilization of resources to allow reductions in avoidable admissions to hospitals while balancing the practice of safe medicine in recognizing the dynamical decision making in a rapidly evolving disease. Several papers came from Italy, and Dr. Salvatore presented the protocols suggested and used by his hospital which proved successful in sifting out the low severity COVID patients who benefited from avoidance of institutionalization while still receiving adequate, and frankly impressive medical tele-follow up.
COVInventions from Israel, by Dr. Tal Or:
Israeli medicine is often involved in innovations and process exploration. In his presentation, Dr. Tal Or spoke about the nasal scent recorder, a unique little device which analyses exhaled breath of the individual being tested for coronavirus, and delivers the results to their smartphone application with results in remarkably short duration of time. The tests showed 85% accuracy. Combined with different considerations when evaluating patients, this would and has saved time and resource utilization.
More to come on September 12th...
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