On its face, it was a major finding: Antimalarial drugs touted by the White House as possible COVID-19 treatments looked to be not just ineffective, but downright deadly. A study published on 22 May in The Lancet used hospital records procured by a little-known data analytics company called Surgisphere to conclude that coronavirus patients taking chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine were more likely to show an irregular heart rhythm—a known side effect thought to be rare—and were more likely to die in the hospital.
Within days, some large randomized trials of the drugs—the type that might prove or disprove the retrospective study’s analysis—screeched to a halt. Solidarity, the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) megatrial of potential COVID-19 treatments, paused recruitment into its hydroxychloroquine arm, for example.
Dennis OConnor on 24 Oct 19"Computer scientist Larry Smarr and osteopathic physician Michael Kurisu present a vision for healthcare that combines the best of allopathic and osteopathic medicine by using a more personalized, hands-on, systems-based approach to treating patients. They demonstrate this proof of concept with details on how Smarr diagnosed his own Crohn's disease by using blood and stool tests to track changes in his body. And when the symptoms became too severe, Smarr collaborated with his surgeon, Sonia Ramamoorthy, MD, to plan the operation based on 3D images of his organs created at his research institute, Calit2 at UC San Diego. Kurisu then introduces Project Apollo, a group of patients inspired by Smarr who are collecting their own data to develop personalized treatments for their particular conditions. Series: "The UC Wellbeing Channel " [7/2018]"
