Articles: pandemics.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Virginia adult cystic fibrosis (CF) center transitioned from in-person clinical encounters to a model that included interdisciplinary telemedicine. The pandemic presented an unprecedented opportunity to assess the impact of the interdisciplinary telemedicine model on clinical CF outcomes. ⋯ This CF care model, which includes IDC-TM, successfully monitored lung function and BMI, identified exacerbations, and followed guidelines-based care during the pandemic. A significant decrease in antibiotic use suggests that social mitigation strategies were protective.
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Virtual residency interviews during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic posed unique challenges to students and residency programs in the United States. We evaluated fourth-year medical students' perceptions of the virtual format and social media use to help select residency programs. We also assessed applicant utilization and perceived usefulness of our social media content. ⋯ Most applicants to this family medicine residency program used social media to gather information, but they expressed worry that it was enough. Virtual interviews are likely to remain postpandemic, creating challenges for residency programs and especially for their hopeful applicants. Programs seeking to provide well-rounded information for applicants should maintain a social media presence as part of their recruitment practices.
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Public health training became particularly important for family medicine (FM) residency training programs amid the COVID-19 pandemic; the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME IV.C.19) requires a structured curriculum in which residents address population health. Our primary goal was to understand if, and to what extent, public health interventions trainings were incorporated into FM residency training programs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesized programs with more resources (eg, university affiliates) would be better able to incorporate the training compared to those without such resources (ie, nonuniversity affiliates). ⋯ FM residency programs were able to provide some public health interventions training during the pandemic. With increased support and resources, FM resident training curricula may better prepare FM residents now in anticipation of a future pandemic.
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Preventive medicine · May 2022
Self-perception of health and physical activity among adults before and amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: United States, 2019-2020.
The compounded impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns on self-perception of health (SPoH) and physical activity (PA) levels among U. S. adults remains to be explored. We sought to: (1) describe the SPoH and PA levels among U. ⋯ Negative SPoH were associated with lack of moderate exercise, and lack of muscle-strengthening training among U. S. adults before and amidst the pandemic. Pandemic policies and recommendations should include and facilitate PA, specifically among vulnerable populations.
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Palliative medicine · May 2022
Trapped in a double cage: How patients' partners experience the diagnosis of advanced cancer in times of the COVID-19 pandemic: An interpretative phenomenological analysis.
When confronting a partner's diagnosis of advanced cancer, family caregivers are often protected against severe psychological illness by their mental resilience. However, the current COVID-19 pandemic endangers this resilience through the daily threat of contagion exposure, viral transmission, isolation, and fear of death. ⋯ The COVID-19 pandemic challenges one's resilience, a process that, under normal circumstances, may evolve while caring for a partner diagnosed with advanced cancer. Although most partners seem to cope adaptively with both advanced cancer and COVID-19, healthcare professionals should be aware of the risk of exhaustion. Furthermore, it can be presupposed that threatened, contextual factors that may support resilience should be preserved to increase the chances for a resilient outcome.