New Season and Our Resilience to Tackle COVID

Below is my monthly message for the October 2021 edition of the MHRI newsletter, Focus. You can view Focus online at MedStarResearch.org/FOCUS.


Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Welcome to October 2021 filled with a week of beautiful, crisp fall weather but also filled with ongoing pandemic concerns.  What seems to be compounding the situation is the lack of reliable information around so many aspects of this disease. It would be nice to have clear answers to some of our most critical questions such as:

  1. Does mask wearing really make a difference if I am already vaccinated?
  2. When do I develop antibodies from the vaccine and how long do they last?
  3. If I get COVID, how do I know if I am going to get very sick or at high risk to die?
  4. If I go to an emergency room with COVID, how do I know if it is safe to go home?
  5. Once I recovered from COVID, how long do I have antibodies against further disease?
  6. How long will COVID symptoms persist after the infection is over?
  7. Why can’t someone come up with a simple pill to treat this disease?
I want you to know that these, and many other critically important COVID questions, are being worked on and answered by MedStar Health investigators right now!  For example, a late breaking clinical trial conducted in over 800 COVID-19 patients, from 13 medical centers across 9 countries (and led by Dr. Federico Asch at MedStar Washington Hospital Center) found that cardiovascular death from COVID-19 could be predicted from the cardiac ultrasound if (and only if) the interpretation was aided by artificial intelligence but could not be interpreted by the human eye only!  And this is just one of several remarkable studies we are conducing here at MedStar Health.  Just look at the studies in this issue of FOCUS:


Results from MedStar Health’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Community Research Partnership (CRP) Study of COVID-19 – This population health study, led by Drs Weintraub and Miller, enrolled over 10,000 MedStar Health patients and is answering many of the above questions about how our behaviors (mask wearing, social distancing, etc) and vaccination uptake are having dramatic effects in our community.  Be on the lookout for an upcoming New England Journal of Medicine publication (and over 20 other scientific publications) coming out from this study in the next few months!

MedStar Health Receives FDA Clearance to Trial an Oral Immunomodulatory Drug for COVID-19  -  Drs. Fishbein, Khan, Kroemer and others from MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institute last week received FDA clearance to conduct an investigator initiated clinical trial on a novel oral medication to treat COVID-19.

MedStar Health Investigators Evaluate Trends For Substance Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic -  This multi-disciplinary research team examined over 100,000 substance use screens from across 7 MedStar Health emergency departments and recently published their results  ‘Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on emergency department substance use screens and overdose presentations’ in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

A New AHRQ R21 Award will Study When is it Safe to Discharge a COVID-19 Patient from the Emergency Department -  In her first federally funded award, Dr. Galarraga (an emergency medicine physician and health care delivery researcher) will develop an electronic health record screening tool that uses artificial Intelligence/machine learning to predict the risk of Emergency Department return among COVID-19 patients.

The pandemic may be relentless but so are our MedStar Health investigators!  As of a recent review, we have over 250 COVID-related research projects at MedStar Health across a diverse set of clinical disciplines.  We are advancing health across our community at the time of greatest need.  Thank you to all the research teams working on COVID-19 (and the other very important areas of healthcare!) and thank you to all those who support the research teams to make this important work possible.

Enjoy this month’s issue of FOCUS and stay well.

Neil

Read Focus online at MedStarResearch.org/FOCUS.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Betsey, Lucy, and Anarcha: Recognition and Remembrance" with MHRI

Image
On Monday, in collaboration with MedStar Washington Hospital Center Women and Infants' Services OBGYN Department, MHRI Senior Leadership, D.C. Safe Babies Safe Moms, and MedStar Research AIDE, we hosted a virtual gathering "Betsey, Lucy, and Anarcha: Recognition and Remembrance" to honor and remember the lives of enslaved women that suffered in the name of science and medical discovery. We chose this day as the overlap of Black History Month and Women's History Month. After opening remarks from several MedStar Health leaders, w e viewed two educational videos together: The Disturbing History of American Medicine | Racist American History and The US Medical System is Still Haunted by Slavery . The videos discussed Dr. J.Marion Sims,and the  experimental surgeries he performed on enslaved women, including Betsey, Lucy, Anarcha and others. Sims performed 30 surgeries on Anarcha alone, without anesthesia or other pain management practices typically offered to white patie
Read more

World Medical Innovation Forum 2018

Image
Medical knowledge is increasing at an exponential rate, so as of 2018, it is doubling every 73 days! I find that hard to believe but certainly agree that it is humanly impossible to stay current on all aspects of healthcare just by reading more or attending more conference. We must use team science and interdisciplinary models of care. We also must embrace technology solutions. Therein lays the power of artificial intelligence in healthcare. This will undoubtedly transform how we practice medicine tomorrow.   I write this blog post from the World Medical Innovation Forum in Boston, dedicated to the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare. Over 1600 professionals from very diverse backgrounds (engineers and industry to startups and clinicians) came together to discuss how to use AI to make healthcare better, safer, and more efficient. Some estimate that AI combined with big data will reduce total healthcare spending by $450 billion annually! There
Read more

MedStar Health's Upcoming Advertising Campaign!

Image
It's a great time to feel proud to be a part of the MedStar system!  I'm very excited to share with you MedStar Health’s multimedia advertising campaign that will launch Monday, December 15 in the Washington, DC and Baltimore regions.  The campaign, which will run through mid-February, features 30-second TV commercials, print and digital advertising, as well as social media.  The goals of the campaign are to: 1)     Enhance MedStar Health’s reputation as the trusted leader in caring for people and advancing health 2)     Continue building MedStar Health’s brand awareness and, ultimately, consumer preference. 3)     Spotlight key service lines in the Washington, DC region. 4)     Promote MedStar Health as an integrated healthcare delivery system by highlighting our strengths: our people, comprehensive services, expertise, innovation and technology. The underlying theme of the TV ads is “In One Day …” The ads demonstrate that the work we do is inspiri
Read more