Emerging Medical Technologies for Fighting COVID-19: Prevention, Testing, and Treatment (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuo Zhao ◽  
Rui Li ◽  
Yangmyung Ma ◽  
Iman Islam ◽  
Abdul M. Azam Rajper ◽  
...  

UNSTRUCTURED During COVID-19, the clinical and healthcare demands have been on the rapid rise. Major challenges to addressing the pandemic include a lack of testing kits and shortages of ventilators to treat severe cases of COVID-19, insufficient accessibility to personal protective equipment for both hospitals and the public. New technologies have been developed by scientists, researchers, and companies in response to these demands. In this paper, 90 news articles and scientific reports on COVID-19-related innovations during 2020-2021 were screened and shortlisted to form a pool of candidates yielding a total of 20 publications for review which were then categorized into three sections: personal protective equipment, testing methods, and medical treatments. Each study was analyzed for its engineering characteristics and potential social impact on the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the guidelines for future disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment were summarized and discussed.

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (01) ◽  
pp. e150-e159
Author(s):  
Rui Imamura ◽  
Ricardo F. Bento ◽  
Leandro L. Matos ◽  
William N. William ◽  
Gustavo N. Marta ◽  
...  

Abstract Background With the COVID-19 pandemic, the clinical practice of physicians who work in the head and neck field in Brazil dropped dramatically. The sustained impact of the pandemic is not known. Methods An anonymous online survey was distributed to Brazilian otolaryngologists, head and neck surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists, asking about their clinical practice in the third to fourth months of the pandemic. Results The survey was completed by 446 specialists. About 40% reported reduction of more than 75% in outpatient care. A reduction of 90% to 100% in airway endoscopies was reported by 50% of the responders, and the same rate of reduction regarding surgeries (pediatric or nasosinusal) was reported by 80% of them. Family income decreased by 50%, and the psychological burden on physicians was considerable. The availability of personal protective equipment and safety precautions were limited, especially in the public sector. Conclusion COVID-19 is still impacting the head and neck field, and safety concerns may hinder the prompt resumption of elective care.


Author(s):  
Phillip W. Clapp ◽  
Emily E. Sickbert-Bennett ◽  
James M. Samet ◽  
Jon Berntsen ◽  
Kirby L. Zeman ◽  
...  

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Hildebrand ◽  
Anthony Bleetman

AbstractBackground:In recent years, the perceived threat of chemical terrorism has increased. It is hoped that teaching civilians how to behave during a chemical incident will decrease the number of “worried well” patients at hospitals, reduce secondary contamination, and increase compliance with the instructions of emergency services. The governments of the United Kingdom and Israel sent booklets to every household in their respective countries. In Israel, the civilian population was issued chemical personal protective equipment (chemical personal protective equipment).Methods:The effectiveness of these public education programs was assessed using a scenario-based questionnaire that was distributed to 100 respondents in Birmingham, UK and Jerusalem, Israel. Respondents were asked how they would behave in three deliberate chemical release scenarios and how they would seek information and help.Results:Only 33% of the UK respondents and 22% of the Israeli respondents recalled reading the government booklets. When asked what they would do after being contaminated in a deliberate release, approximately half of the respondents ranked seeking medical care at a hospital as the most appropriate action.The preferred sources of information in the wake of a chemical strike were (in descending order): radio, television, and the Internet. Approximately half of the respondents would call emergency services for information. Forty-one percent of the UK respondents and 33% of Israeli respondents stated that they either would call or go to the nearest hospital to seek information.Conclusions:The public information campaigns in both countries have had a limited impact. Many citizens claimed they would self-present to the nearest hospital following a chemical attack rather than waiting for the emergency services. A similar response was witnessed in the Sarin attacks in Tokyo and the 1991 Scud missile attacks in Israel.Current UK doctrine mandates that specialist decontamination teams be deployed to the scene of a chemical release. However, this takes >1 hour, and it requires at least 30 minutes to don hospital chemical personal protective equipment. Therefore, it is imperative that hospitals are equipped to cope with unannounced self-presenters after a chemical attack. This requires chemical personal protective equipment and protocols that are easier to use.


2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (02) ◽  
pp. 077-086 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph L. Mathew ◽  
T. Lazar Mathew

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated tremendous innovation in India, driven by unprecedented novel needs, sense of urgency, availability of time during the lockdown, funding by Government agencies, and accelerated processing of projects. Therefore, the country has witnessed widespread innovation and imitation of existing technologies in recent weeks, but very few inventions. One novel invention, the Artificial Breathing Capability Device (ABCD) is being speeded up by the current necessity. Other innovations and imitations include (i) healthcare devices/products intended for diagnosis, management, or monitoring of suspected/confirmed COVID-19 patients (in healthcare institutions); (ii) improvisations in personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline healthcare workers and other personnel (including the public); (iii) adaptation of information technology platforms for telehealth, telemedicine, telemonitoring, and tele-education; and (iv) repurposing of existing resources/technologies for COVID-19. Some fruits of these efforts include (i) respiratory support devices (by mechanization of manual ventilation, ventilator splitters, etc.), (ii) personal protective equipment (PPE) (novel face masks, face shields/splash guards, intubation boxes, aerosol guards, etc.), (iii) novel sanitization products, processes or deployment methods, (iv) diagnostic tests (including rapid antibody tests, polymerase chain reaction [PCR] methods, and loop-mediated isothermal amplification [LAMP]), and (v) various adaptations such as repurposing and retrofitting of existing technologies aligned to the needs of COVID-19. These innovations and imitations have laudable features such as extremely rapid development of products (not merely concepts or prototypes); collaboration among individuals, institutions, and industry; willingness of players to work outside traditional comfort zones; and teamwork among stakeholders. Social media and lay press publicity create a sense of achievement and hope in a nation bogged down by the realities of COVID-19. However, these positive developments are associated with unique problems, especially duplication of effort, disregard of intellectual property (IP) issues, unhealthy competition amongst institutions, and failure to consider the needs for which solutions are proposed. The haste for developing products has bypassed the important steps of peer review, laboratory testing, and clinical validation to ensure the safety and efficacy of end users. These unintended side effects of the innovation race can be overcome by coordinated efforts through an innovation pathway proposed in this article under a broader innovation ecosystem.


Author(s):  
Venny Larasati ◽  
Soilia Fertilita

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought several changes to people's routine habits. Educating the public about the importance of washing and disinfecting hands as often as possible and the use of personal protective equipment such as masks, googles or face shields to avoid disease transmission and sunbathing habits to get the benefits of sunlight for health and the immune system has an impact on behavior changes on the community. These new habits can bring a negative effect to the skin. The use of disinfectants and personal protective equipment can cause allergic dermatitis, contact dermatitis, skin maceration, secondary fungal infection and acne. Sunbathing can cause changes in skin pigmentation, the appearance of black spots, the skin looks dull and rough and accelerates the appearance of premature wrinkles on the skin. Proper skin care routine during this pandemic situation is essential to maintain skin healthy and avoid skin problems due to the use of disinfectants or PPE. The use of emollients, moisturizers and barrier creams can prevent skin problems to happen. Skin moisturizers can be used regularly after hand washing and before using personal protective equipment. When it comes to maintaining healthy skin during pandemic, skin care routine consists of facial cleansers, toners, moisturizers, serums, morning creams and night creams are also recommended to keep the skin healthy and slow the appearance of premature aging signs on the skin. This activity aims to provide a better understanding to people especially worker how to prevent skin problems and how to maintain healthy skin during pandemic.


Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sean Banaee ◽  
Denise M. Claiborne ◽  
Muge Akpinar-Elci

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a substantial burden on dental care professionals. While dentistry is known as one of the most exposed and high-risk professions, dental care professionals are indeed at even greater risk. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess knowledge, attitudes, occupational health practices, personal protective equipment usage, and mental stressors during COVID-19 pandemic among dental care professionals. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among dental care professionals who were subscribers to a dental hygiene journal using a self-administered online survey (n = 1047 respondents). Cross-tabulations were performed to determine differences in the responses to the statements related to different domains. RESULTS: COVID-19 impacted the healthy work-life balance (p <  0.001) and caused sleeping difficulty among the respondents (p <  0.001). Moreover, a lower response on changing respirators and gloves for each patient compared with before viral pandemic was observed (p <  0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Ongoing training on infection control, occupational health practices, and PPE usage can prevent the transmission of COVID-19 among dental care professionals and the public. Lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) is a burden for applying occupational health practices in dental clinics and present a risk to the public. COVID-19 may contribute to developing psychological stress and disrupt healthy work-life balance among dental professionals.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Duvall ◽  
Garrett G. Grindle ◽  
John Kaplan ◽  
David Marks ◽  
Lee Sylvers ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 pandemic stressed healthcare systems all over the world. Two primary challenges that healthcare systems faced were a shortage of personal protective equipment and the need for new technologies to handle infection prevention for staff and patients. The Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Technology Transfer Program responded by prioritizing the development of innovations in the Technology Transfer Assistance Project which addressed the pandemic. This paper describes several innovations that addressed the needs of the VA healthcare system during the pandemic and how they were rapidly developed.


Author(s):  
Syamsiar S. Russeng ◽  
Healthy Hidayanty ◽  
Adetya Firdyanti Malik ◽  
Harun Achmad

Background: Public Health Center is a workplace with the potential for occupational safety and health (K3) hazards to its officers, patients and visitors. The level of occupational safety and health risks can be significantly minimized by implementing safety behaviors. Increased safety behavior can be influenced by the practice of having interventions in the form of K3 training. Interventions are carried out based on risk assessments in the workplace. Objective: This study aims to know the potential for hazards by conducting a risk assessment and assessing the effect of K3 training on actions based on operational procedures, use of personal protective equipment, use of equipment and tools, work posture of officers at public health center of Wolasi South Konawe Regency. Methods: This research was a passive participatory observational study to assess potential hazards. To assess the effect of K3 training, a quasi experiment is used with a pretest - post test one group design. The sample obtained by 20 respondents with purposive sampling technique. Results: The results showed that there were 5 potential hazards of low risk categories, 12 potential hazards of medium risk and 18 potential hazards of high risk. The results of statistical test with Wilcoxon signed rank test was that there was a significant effect on behavior based on operational procedures (p = 0.000 <0.05), the use of personal protective equipment (p= 0,000<0,05) and the use of tools and equipment (p = 0.003 <0.05). There was no significant effect on work posture. Conclusion: There is an effect of occupational safety and health training on safety behavior in terms of operational procedures, use of personal protective equipment and the use of tools and equipment for officers at public health center of Wolasi. Public health center of officers are advised to be more disciplined in performing according to the public health center of SOP. It is better for the public health center of to form a K3 team that oversees the implementation of occupational safety and health and also socializes the Minister of Health Regulation number 52 of 2018.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-12
Author(s):  
Nikolay I. Kuznetsov ◽  
Elena S. Romanova

The lecture is devoted to non-specific prevention of coronavirus infection. Various measures are described to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to both the public and healthcare providers. The characteristic of various measures for the disinfection of medical and household waste is given. A detailed description of various personal protection methods with a description of the rules for their use is given. Attention is drawn to the rules for the use of personal protective equipment during a pandemic. Attention is drawn to common errors encountered when using personal protective equipment. The importance of their use in order to prevent the spread of infection outside medical institutions is emphasized.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7034
Author(s):  
Zheng Wang ◽  
Christophe Guy ◽  
Kelvin Tsun Wai Ng ◽  
Chunjiang An

To prevent the transmission of the Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in the public, the demand and consumption of personal protective equipment (PPE) increased drastically. Such wide use of PPE has brough a new challenge to waste management and disposal. It is difficult to sort PPE waste before further treatment, and such waste will often end up being processed by some traditional disposal methods. During the pandemic, incineration and landfill facilities are currently under significant pressure. In addition, a certain amount of PPE waste is discarded into the environment rather than going to landfills and incinerators. It not only directly affects the ecosystem, but also indirectly threatens human health through various routes of exposure. PPE waste is also the source and carrier of pathogens and chemical contaminants, causing a secondary pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to establish appropriate strategies to deal with the PPE problems related to energy, environment and health, requiring the collaborative efforts of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and governments.


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