Articles: pandemics.
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Emerging biological threats represent a serious challenge for force health protection (FHP). Against a novel biological threat, medical countermeasures are the first line of defense. However, as exposed by global pandemic conditions, there are significant complications when administering medical countermeasures against novel threats. One such limitation involved the lack of any guiding structure to discuss and deliberate upon the relative value of employing different countermeasures either alone or in tandem. For example, both personal protective equipment and prophylactic medication can provide some protection, but how are individual protections weighed against operational capabilities and FHP initiatives? The goal of this review is to provide a hierarchical organizing structure to the different medical countermeasures available in response to emerging biological threats. ⋯ Identifying medical countermeasures is important to optimizing FHP. Different countermeasures have different advantages, and the hierarchy distinguishes between inferior and superior countermeasures through the push-pull style mechanism of resource-durability assessment. Future deployment and development should focus on superior countermeasures to maximize medical protections and operational readiness while understanding the relative value and complications inherent with different countermeasures.
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed considerable psychological stress on frontline healthcare workers (HCWs). ⋯ The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the dimensions of depersonalization and emotional exhaustion. Consideration of these dimensions is important when designing future burnout prevention programs for frontline personnel.
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Contactless vital signs (VS) measurement with video photoplethysmography (vPPG), motion analysis (MA), and passive infrared thermometry (pIR) has shown promise. ⋯ Contactless VS acquisition demonstrated good agreement with contact methods during adult walk-in ED patient triage in pandemic conditions; clinical applications will need further study.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, health care provider well-being was affected by various challenges in the work environment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the perceived work environment and mental well-being of a sample of emergency physicians (EPs), emergency medicine (EM) nurses, and emergency medical services (EMS) providers during the pandemic. ⋯ We found a strong association between a perceived adverse working environment and poor mental health, particularly when organizational support was deemed inadequate. Targeted strategies to promote better perceptions of the workplace are needed.