Articles: sars-cov-2.
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Medical physician residency program websites often serve as the first contact for any prospective applicant. No analysis of military residency program websites has yet been conducted, in contrast to their civilian counterparts. This study evaluated all military residency programs certified by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) 2021-2022 to determine program website comprehensiveness and accessibility and identify areas for improvement. ⋯ Program information in an accessible website platform allows prospective applicants to gain comprehensive perspectives of programs during the application process without reliance on personal visits and audition rotations. Limitations to in-person experiences, such as those caused by reductions in travel and concern for student safety during the global pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, may be alleviated by accessible virtual information. Our results indicate that there is opportunity for all military residency programs to improve their websites and better recruit applicants through understanding their audience and optimizing their reach online.
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To this date, there is little known about the symptoms, their duration, and occupational implications of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the military population. Decisions regarding implementing precaution measures are based on data deriving from the general population. Moreover, the Omicron variant seems to cause a disease with lesser severity than previous variants. We aimed to describe the clinical presentation and estimate the loss of workdays due to mild COVID-19 during an Omicron predominant wave among a young, healthy, and mostly vaccinated military population. ⋯ Our findings demonstrate that even among a young and fully vaccinated population, COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant may result in substantial medical leave from military service, compared to common cold or influenza virus infection. Our study sample was relatively small; however, the response rate was high and our results shed light on the yet-to-be fully characterized Omicron variant-related COVID-19. Despite the current common perception of COVID-19 as a self-limiting mild disease with low burden of symptoms, our findings show the potential occupational burden of infection with COVID-19 on military units and their readiness and could be considered when discussing public health restrictions and further steps taken to minimize outbreaks ramifications.
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Throughout the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, military commanders have been challenged with providing appropriate travel guidance for their military and civilian personnel and dependents. This guidance, where promulgated, lacks uniformity. Travel aids and computer applications similarly differ and are not updated as often as jurisdictional travel health guidance is changed. Given the ever-evolving Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants with differing degrees of infectivity, COVID-19 travel guidance will remain relevant for military travelers during the transition from pandemic to endemic phases and for the foreseeable future. ⋯ Our TRAQ provides an easy-to-use format that can enable military, business, or personal travelers to more completely assess their likelihood of COVID-19 exposure and help them to reduce their potential for contracting COVID-19 during travel and subsequently transmitting it to others upon return. It should help commanders and traveling personnel to better assess COVID-19 travel risks through application of known travel risk factors.
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Photoplethysmography (PPG) is the science behind many commonly used medical devices such as the pulse oximeter. PPG changes, herein as "PPG dropouts," have been described in existing in vitro studies following artificially induced clot activation. Because COVID-19 causes increased arterial, venous, and microvascular clot formation, our hypothesis is that PPG dropouts identified in vitro can also be found in vivo in patients with COVID-19. The aim of this study is to evaluate PPG recordings and D-dimer levels for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and compare them with the PPG tracings from non-COVID controls. ⋯ PPG dropout, like D-dimer, may not be specific for COVID-19. However, the inflammatory nature of the disease and the prevalence of prolonged ICU created a large sample size and allowed the authors to observe PPG changes in vivo in a statistically meaningful way. Further confirmatory studies are needed to confirm the potential application of PPG dropout as a measure of inflammation in other disease processes.
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Reports of sexual assault (SA) in the U.S. Military have increased in recent years. Given the deleterious effects of military SA, there remains a need for large-scale studies to assess SA-related health care utilization among active duty service members (ADSMs). The present study, therefore, utilized Military Health System (MHS) data to determine the prevalence of SA-related care, sociodemographic characteristics of ADSMs receiving said care, and the type of provider seen during the initial SA-related health encounter. ⋯ The current study is the first large-scale examination of health care usage by ADSMs in the MHS who have experienced SA. Results indicated that rates of SA-related care decreased throughout the study period, despite the increasing rates of SA documented by the DoD. Inconsistent with previous research and DoD reports indicating that younger ADSMs are at the highest risk for SA, our study observed lower rates of SA-related care among those aged 18-25 years; additional research is warranted to determine if there are barriers preventing younger ADSMs from seeking SA-related health care. Behavioral health providers were most frequently seen for the initial SA-related encounter, suggesting that they may be in a unique position to provide care and/or relevant referrals to ADSMs who have experienced SA. The present study provides key insights about the prevalence of SA-related care within the MHS, not yet reported in previous literature, which could help inform MHS screening practices. The strengths of the study are the inclusion of the entire active duty population without the need for research recruitment given the utilization of de-identified TRICARE claims data. The study is limited by its use of health care claims data, general SA International Classification of Diseases codes as a proxy indicator for military SA, and lack of data on ethnicity. Future research utilizing MHS data should examine mental health outcomes following the documentation of SA and disruptions in SA-related care due to SARS-CoV-2.