Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Conducting A Supportive Oncology Clinical Trial During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Challenges And Strategies, Jie Deng, John N. Lukens, Joy C. Cohn, Erin Mcmenamin, Barbara Murphy, Bryan A. Spinelli, Niya Murphy, Alicia K. Steinmetz, Megan A. Landriau, Alexander Lin

Department of Physical Therapy Faculty Papers

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in severe interruptions to clinical research worldwide. This global public health crisis required investigators and researchers to rapidly develop and implement new strategies and solutions to mitigate its negative impact on the progress of clinical trials. In this paper, we describe the challenges, strategies, and lessons learned regarding the continuation of a supportive oncology clinical trial during the pandemic. We hope to provide insight into the implementation of clinical trials during a public health emergency to be better prepared for future instances.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the US National Institute of …

Increased Incidence Of Suspected Smoke Inhalation During The Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A National Database Study, Theodore E Habarth-Morales, Arturo J. Rios Diaz, Emily Isch, Shreyas Chandragiri, Lucy Qi, Rose Ni, Edward J. Caterson

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many Americans to adapt their daily routines. In 2020, there was a significant increase in house fires according to the National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA). The objective of this study was to characterize the changes in suspected smoke inhalations (SSIs) during the first year of the pandemic in the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS). The NEMSIS database was queried for all EMS transports captured between 2017 and 2020. Differences in the incidences of SSIs and fire dispatches in 2020 were estimated using Poisson regression models. There was a 13.4% increase in the incidence …

Emerging Lessons From The Covid-19 Pandemic About The Decisive Competencies Needed For The Public Health Workforce: A Qualitative Study, Osnat Bashkin, Robert Otok, Lore Leighton, Kasia Czabanowska, Paul Barach, Nadav Davidovitch, Keren Dopelt, Mariusz Duplaga, Leah Okenwa Emegwa, Fiona Macleod, Yehuda Neumark, Maya Peled Raz, Theodore Tulchinsky, Zohar Mor

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

The global COVID-19 crisis exposed the critical need for a highly qualified public health workforce. This qualitative research aimed to examine public health workforce competencies needed to face COVID-19 challenges and identify the gaps between training programs and the competency demands of real-world disasters and pandemics. Through a sample of thirty-one participant qualitative interviews, we examined the perspectives of diverse stakeholders from lead public health organizations in Israel. Grounded Theory was used to analyze the data. Six themes emerged from the content analysis: public health workforce's low professional status and the uncertain future of the public health workforce; links between …

Notes From An Epicenter: Navigating Behavioral Clinical Trials On Autism Spectrum Disorder Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic In The Bronx, Alaina S Berruti, Roseann C Schaaf, Emily A Jones, Elizabeth Ridgway, Rachel L. Dumont, Benjamin E Leiby, Catherine Sancimino, Misung Yi, Sophie Molholm

Department of Occupational Therapy Faculty Papers

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted nearly all facets of our daily lives, and clinical research was no exception. Here, we discuss the impact of the pandemic on our ongoing, three-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) Sensory Integration Therapy (SIT) in Autism: Mechanisms and Effectiveness (NCT02536365), which investigates the immediate and sustained utility of SIT to strengthen functional daily-living skills and minimize the presence of maladaptive sensory behaviors in autistic children.

Main text: In this text, we detail how we navigated the unique challenges that the pandemic brought forth between the years 2020 and 2021, including the need to rapidly …

A Qualitative Exploration Of The Functional, Social, And Emotional Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On People Who Use Drugs, Erin L Kelly, Megan K Reed, Kathryn M Schoenauer, Kelsey Smith, Kristina Scalia-Jackson, Sequoia Kay Hill, Erica Li, Lara Weinstein

Department of Family & Community Medicine Faculty Papers

Since 2020, people who use drugs (PWUD) experienced heightened risks related to drug supply disruptions, contamination, overdose, social isolation, and increased stress. This study explored how the lives of PWUD changed in Philadelphia over a one-year period. Using semi-structured interviews with 20 participants in a Housing First, low-barrier medication for opioid use (MOUD) program in Philadelphia, the effects of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic on the daily lives, resources, functioning, substance use, and treatment of PWUD were explored. Interviews were analyzed using a combination of directed and conventional content analysis. Six overarching themes emerged during data analysis: (1) …

Informal And Incidental Learning In The Clinical Learning Environment: Learning Through Complexity And Uncertainty During Covid-19, Dimitrios Papanagnou, Karen E Watkins, Henriette Lundgren, Grace A Alcid, Deborah Ziring, Victoria J Marsick

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, where clinical environments are plagued by both uncertainty and complexity, the importance of the informal and social aspects of learning among health care teams cannot be exaggerated. While there have been attempts to better understand the nuances of informal learning in the clinical environment through descriptions of the tacit or hidden curriculum, incidental learning in medical education has only been partially captured in the research. Understood through concepts borrowed from the Cynefin conceptual framework for sensemaking, the early stages of the pandemic immersed clinical teams in complex and chaotic situations where there was …

Advanced-Stage Melanoma At Presentation Following The Peak Of The Pandemic: A Covid-19 Cancer Canary In A Coal Mine, Ryan Lamm, Md, Walker Lyons, Md, Winnie So, Rn, Alliric I. Willis, Md, Facs, Msph

Department of Surgery Faculty Papers

Background: For melanoma patients, timely identification and tumor thickness are directly correlated with outcomes. COVID-19 impacted both patients' ability and desire to see physicians. We sought to identify whether the pandemic correlated with changes in melanoma thickness at presentation and subsequent treatment timeline.

Methods: Retrospective chart review was performed on patients who underwent surgery for melanoma in an academic center surgical oncology practice from May 2019 to September 2021. Patients were split into two cohorts: "pre-pandemic" from May 2019 to May 2020 and "pandemic," after May 2020, representing when these patients received their initial diagnostic biopsy. Demographic and melanoma-specific variables …

Publication Trends In Telemedicine Research Originating From Canada, Jim S Xie, Keean Nanji, Mohammad Khan, Muhammad F Khalid, Sunir J Garg, Lehana Thabane, Sobha Sivaprasad, Varun Chaudhary

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

Telemedicine modalities for patient care have seen significant global uptake during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to bibliometrically evaluate the evolution and current landscape of telemedicine literature in Canada. The Scopus database was searched to identify telemedicine publications for which the first or last author had a Canadian institutional affiliation. Study selection and data abstraction were conducted by two pairs of independent reviewers. Between 1976 and January 2021, 810 of 3,620 retrieved citations were telemedicine publications originating from Canada, including 29 randomized controlled trials and 6 systematic reviews. The annual publication output increased substantially from 1/year in 1976 to …

Otitis Media Practice During The Covid-19 Pandemic., Tal Marom, Jacob Pitaro, Udayan Shah, Sara Torretta, Paola Marchisio, Ayan Kumar, Patrick Barth, Sharon Ovnat Tamir

Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Faculty Papers

The global coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has changed the prevalence and management of many pediatric infectious diseases, including acute otitis media (AOM). Coronaviruses are a group of RNA viruses that cause respiratory tract infections in humans. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, coronavirus serotypes OC43, 229E, HKU1, and NL63 were infrequently detected in middle ear fluid (MEF) specimens and nasopharyngeal aspirates in children with AOM during the 1990s and 2000s and were associated with a mild course of the disease. At times when CoV was detected in OM cases, the overall viral load was relatively low. The new severe acute respiratory syndrome …

Assessment Of Regional Variability In Covid-19 Outcomes Among Patients With Cancer In The United States., Jessica E Hawley, Tianyi Sun, David D Chism, Narjust Duma, Julie C Fu, Na Tosha N Gatson, Sanjay Mishra, Ryan H Nguyen, Sonya A Reid, Oscar K Serrano, Sunny R K Singh, Neeta K Venepalli, Ziad Bakouny, Babar Bashir, Mehmet A Bilen, Paolo F Caimi, Toni K Choueiri, Scott J Dawsey, Leslie A Fecher, Daniel B Flora, Christopher R Friese, Michael J Glover, Cyndi J Gonzalez, Sharad Goyal, Thorvardur R Halfdanarson, Dawn L Hershman, Hina Khan, Chris Labaki, Mark A Lewis, Rana R Mckay, Ian Messing, Nathan A Pennell, Matthew Puc, Deepak Ravindranathan, Terence D Rhodes, Andrea V Rivera, John Roller, Gary K Schwartz, Sumit A Shah, Justin A Shaya, Mitrianna Streckfuss, Michael A Thompson, Elizabeth M Wulff-Burchfield, Zhuoer Xie, Peter Paul Yu, Jeremy L Warner, Dimpy P Shah, Benjamin French, Clara Hwang

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

Importance: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a distinct spatiotemporal pattern in the United States. Patients with cancer are at higher risk of severe complications from COVID-19, but it is not well known whether COVID-19 outcomes in this patient population were associated with geography.

Objective: To quantify spatiotemporal variation in COVID-19 outcomes among patients with cancer.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This registry-based retrospective cohort study included patients with a historical diagnosis of invasive malignant neoplasm and laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between March and November 2020. Data were collected from cancer care delivery centers in the United States.

Exposures: Patient residence was categorized …

Exploring How Public Health Partnerships With Community-Based Organizations (Cbos) Can Be Leveraged For Health Promotion And Community Health., Senila Yasmin, Rayna Haque, Kaneza Kadambaya, Marzia Maliha, Maha Sheikh

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

The Academic Public Health Corps (APHC) works to support local public health in Massachusetts through varying models of collaboration. In the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic, one initiative of the APHC has been to partner with community-based organizations (CBOs) to address vaccine hesitancy and improve overall community health. The purpose of this article is to share how the APHC partnered with CBOs in Massachusetts to address COVID-19 concerns within their respective communities, and present strategies to empower communities, share resources, and increase health promotion. The APHC partnered with 2 CBOs who received the Massachusetts COVID-19 Community Grants distributed by Health …