scholarly journals The Challenges of COVID-19 for People Living With Diabetes: Considerations for Digital Health (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anissa Gamble ◽  
Quynh Pham ◽  
Shivani Goyal ◽  
Joseph A Cafazzo

UNSTRUCTURED The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a global pandemic that significantly impacts people living with diabetes. Diabetes-related factors of glycemic control, medication pharmacodynamics, and insulin access can impact the severity of a COVID-19 infection. In this commentary, we explore how digital health can support the diabetes community through the pandemic. For those living with diabetes, digital health presents the opportunity to access care with greater convenience while not having to expose themselves to infection in an in-person clinic. Digital diabetes apps can increase agency in self-care and produce clinically significant improvement in glycemic control through facilitating the capture of diabetes device data. However, the ability to share these data back to the clinic to inform virtual care and enhance diabetes coaching and guidance remains a challenge. In the end, it requires an unnecessarily high level of technical sophistication on the clinic’s part and on those living with diabetes to routinely use their diabetes device data in clinic visits, virtual or otherwise. As the world comes together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, close collaboration among the global diabetes community is critical to understand and manage the sustained impact of the pandemic on people living with diabetes.


JMIR Diabetes ◽  
10.2196/19581 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. e19581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anissa Gamble ◽  
Quynh Pham ◽  
Shivani Goyal ◽  
Joseph A Cafazzo

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a global pandemic that significantly impacts people living with diabetes. Diabetes-related factors of glycemic control, medication pharmacodynamics, and insulin access can impact the severity of a COVID-19 infection. In this commentary, we explore how digital health can support the diabetes community through the pandemic. For those living with diabetes, digital health presents the opportunity to access care with greater convenience while not having to expose themselves to infection in an in-person clinic. Digital diabetes apps can increase agency in self-care and produce clinically significant improvement in glycemic control through facilitating the capture of diabetes device data. However, the ability to share these data back to the clinic to inform virtual care and enhance diabetes coaching and guidance remains a challenge. In the end, it requires an unnecessarily high level of technical sophistication on the clinic’s part and on those living with diabetes to routinely use their diabetes device data in clinic visits, virtual or otherwise. As the world comes together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, close collaboration among the global diabetes community is critical to understand and manage the sustained impact of the pandemic on people living with diabetes.



Author(s):  
Alison Hardacre ◽  
Lachlan Wheeler

Telehealth and digital health more broadly have become two of the fastest growing IT sectors in the world. They have the potential to transform lives everywhere, often before regulation has had the chance to catch up to everyday reality in healthcare. This chapter is grounded in clinical practice occurring at the time of writing and discusses at a high level regulatory issues in telehealth. This chapter argues that complexities regarding regulation over clinical applicability, patient identification, bandwidth, and funding mechanisms, as well as data storage, jurisdiction, and usage should not prevent uptake of telehealth and digital health given the clinical benefits of telehealth in countries such as Australia and internationally.



Author(s):  
Jingyi Ou ◽  
Mingkai Tan ◽  
Haolan He ◽  
Haiyan Tan ◽  
Jiewen Mai ◽  
...  

Background: In 2020, the current outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019(COVID-19) has constituted a global pandemic. But the question about the immune mechanism of patients with COVID-19 is unclear and cause particular concern to the world. Here, we launched a follow-up analysis of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 of 192 COVID-19 patients, aiming to depict a kinetics profile of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and explore the related factors of antibodies expression against SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 patient. Methods: A total of 192 COVID-19 patients enrolled in the designated hospital of Guangzhou , Guangzhou Eighth People's Hospital, from January to February 2020 were selected as the study cohort. A cohort of 130 COVID-19 suspects who had been excluded from SARS-CoV-2 infected by negative RT-PCR result and 209 healthy people were enrolled in this study. Detection of IgM and IgG against SARS-CoV-2 were performed by Chemiluminescence immunoassay in different groups . Results: It has been found that the seroconversion time of IgM against SARS-CoV-2 in most patients was 5-10 days after the symptoms onset , and then rose rapidly, reaching a peak around 2 to 3 weeks, and the median peak concentration was 2.705 AU / mL. The peak of IgM maintained within one week, and then enters the descending channel. IgG seroconverted later than or synchronously with IgM, reaching peaks around 3 to 4 weeks.The median peak concentration was 33.998AU / ml,which was higher than that of IgM . IgM titers begins to gradually decrease after reaching the peak in the 4th week, after the 8th week, a majority of IgM in patient's serum started to turn negative. On the contrary, titers of IgG began to decline slightly after the fifth week, and more than 90% of results of patients were positive after 8 weeks. Additionally, the concentration of antibodies positively correlated with the severity of the disease and the duration of virus exist in host. Conclusion: We depict a kinetics profile of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 patients and found out that the levels of antibodies were related to the disease severity,age, gender and virus clearance or continuous proliferation of COVID-19 patients.



Author(s):  
Alison Hardacre ◽  
Lachlan Wheeler

Telehealth and digital health more broadly have become two of the fastest growing IT sectors in the world. They have the potential to transform lives everywhere, often before regulation has had the chance to catch up to everyday reality in healthcare. This chapter is grounded in clinical practice occurring at the time of writing and discusses at a high level regulatory issues in telehealth. This chapter argues that complexities regarding regulation over clinical applicability, patient identification, bandwidth, and funding mechanisms, as well as data storage, jurisdiction, and usage should not prevent uptake of telehealth and digital health given the clinical benefits of telehealth in countries such as Australia and internationally.



2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ammar Saad

On March 11th 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic [1,2]. We had realized the gravity of the situation before but, until that day, did not comprehend how our reality was about to change for the foreseeable future. Following that declaration, most countries and states implemented strict public health restrictions to contain the spread of the virus and decrease its mortality rate by enforcing physical distancing measures. Albeit effective, such measures did not come without consequences on the quality of life and wellbeing of people worldwide [3]. Social isolation, loneliness, loss of employment and income, and housing instability were some of the adverse events that arose during what we call “the lockdown” [4,5]. A friend of mine who had migrated to Canada from a war-torn zone felt the magnitude of this lockdown. “It’s like moving from one prison to another” he explained, reminiscing about a time he was forced to stay home to avoid the unforgiving jaws of man-made conflict.



2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Francesca Alvisi ◽  
Paola Dordoni ◽  
Tiziana Rancati ◽  
Barbara Avuzzi ◽  
Nicola Nicolai ◽  
...  

BackgroundThe psychological burden possibly deriving from not immediately undergoing radical treatment for prostate cancer (PCa) could be a potential disadvantage of active surveillance (AS), especially in the eve of some relevant clinical exams [i.e., re-biopsy, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, and medical examination]. Even if it is known from the literature that the majority of PCa men in AS do not report heightened anxiety, there is a minority of patients who show clinically significant levels of anxiety after diagnosis. The present study aimed to investigate if demographic, clinical, and psychological variables at the entrance in AS (T0) were associated with the risk of developing clinically significant PCa-related anxiety 2 months before the first re-biopsy (T1) and to offer psychological support to improve quality of life (QoL).Materials and MethodsA total of 236 patients participated in the PCa Research International: AS (PRIAS) protocol and in PRIAS-QoL study. Demographic/clinical features, health-related QoL domains, coping with cancer, PCa-related anxiety [Memorial Anxiety Scale for PCa (MAX-PC)], personality traits, and decision-making-related factors were assessed at T0. MAX-PC was also administered at T1. PCa-related anxiety at T1 was considered to be of clinical significance if the MAX-PC score was ≥1.5. Multivariable logistic regression coupled to bootstrap was used to detect factors associated with high levels of anxiety.ResultsThe median age was 64.4 years. Fifty-six patients (24%) reported MAX-PC total score above the cutoff. Three factors were associated with a high level of PCa anxiety at T1: anxious preoccupation [odds ratio (OR) = 4.36], extraversion (OR = 1.9), and prostate-related symptoms (median OR = 0.46). Physical well-being was associated with a low PCa anxiety subscale (median OR = 0.15); neuroticism and functional well-being were associated with PSA anxiety (median OR = 7.05 and 0.73, respectively). Neuroticism and helplessness/hopelessness were associated with fear of progression (median OR = 18.1 and 5.8, respectively).ConclusionOnly a partial portion of the sample experienced significant levels of anxiety after 10 months. Psychological assessment should be routinely conducted to detect risk factors (i.e., anxious preoccupation, extraversion) for increased anxiety, offering tailored psychological interventions aimed at promoting interpersonal awareness and emotional well-being.



1980 ◽  
Vol 43 (02) ◽  
pp. 137-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Erikssen ◽  
Erik Thaulow ◽  
Helge Stormorken ◽  
Ole Brendemoen ◽  
Arvid Hellem

SummaryThe view based on epidemiological and laboratory data that blood group A subjects (=A) have clinically significant higher thrombotic potential than blood group 0 subjects (= O), is supported by the present finding of a significantly higher platelet retention in A than 0.The completely normal ABO distribution found among 71 cases of proven latent CHD, and the disproportionate excess of 0 vs. A in a consecutive series of 191 coronary artery bypass candidates apparently conflict with epidemiological data indicating a higher risk of achieving CHD in A than 0. The conflict may be solved by suggestinga) that the »thrombotic proneness« in A compared with 0 causes a poorer prognosis in CHD among the former, leaving a disproportionate excess of 0 among longterm CHD survivors, and b) that AB0-related factors have had an insignificant, independent impact on the evolution of preclinical coronary artery disease in our 71 men with latent CHD.



2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 748-752
Author(s):  
Swapnali Khabade ◽  
Bharat Rathi ◽  
Renu Rathi

A novel, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causes severe acute respiratory syndrome and spread globally from Wuhan, China. In March 2020 the World Health Organization declared the SARS-Cov-2 virus as a COVID- 19, a global pandemic. This pandemic happened to be followed by some restrictions, and specially lockdown playing the leading role for the people to get disassociated with their personal and social schedules. And now the food is the most necessary thing to take care of. It seems the new challenge for the individual is self-isolation to maintain themselves on the health basis and fight against the pandemic situation by boosting their immunity. Food organised by proper diet may maintain the physical and mental health of the individual. Ayurveda aims to promote and preserve the health, strength and the longevity of the healthy person and to cure the disease by properly channelling with and without Ahara. In Ayurveda, diet (Ahara) is considered as one of the critical pillars of life, and Langhana plays an important role too. This article will review the relevance of dietetic approach described in Ayurveda with and without food (Asthavidhi visheshaytana & Lanhgan) during COVID-19 like a pandemic.



2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 758-762
Author(s):  
Amit Biswas ◽  
KunalChandankhede

Wuhan originated Covid-19 disease is caused by SARC-COV 2 virus. It is a contagious disease it spread all over the world. World health organization declared a global pandemic disease. In Covid-19 immunity plays an important role. In old age people or having other co-morbid conditions the mortality rate is more. Ayurveda has a big role in improved immunity or to intact immunity. The principle of Ayurveda is to keep individual swastha (diseases free). To maintain individual disease-free Ritucharya is one of the important subjects of Ayurveda. Aimed of study is to find out Ritucharya literature from the Ayurveda and modern research specifically Varsha and Sharad ritu. Ritucharya contains dietary regimen, living modification, common medicine, and contraindicated things those changing according to environmental change. Upcoming season in India is Varsha and Sharad ritu. Environmental changes are huge in this season and it directly affected human beings. So this study reveals property of ritu, dietary regimen, living modification, common medicine and contraindicated things in upcoming varsha and sharad ritu.



2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arathy Puthillam

That American and European participants are overrepresented in psychological studies has been previously established. In addition, researchers also often tend to be similarly homogenous. This continues to be alarming, especially given that this research is being used to inform policies across the world. In the face of a global pandemic where behavioral scientists propose solutions, we ask who is conducting research and on what samples. Forty papers on COVID-19 published in PsyArxiV were analyzed; the nationalities of the authors and the samples they recruited were assessed. Findings suggest that an overwhelming majority of the samples recruited were from the US and the authors were based in US and German institutions. Next, men constituted a large proportion of primary and sole authors. The implications of these findings are discussed.



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