PHE - Resources

"SAN FRANCISCO - For the first time in a randomized controlled trial, brain exercises were shown effective in addressing depression in treatment-resistant older patients, who had previously used anti-depressive drug therapy without success. The exercises were shown to improve not only mood, but also the often-unaddressed cognitive deficits associated with geriatric depression. The study used neuroplasticity-based exercises from BrainHQ, the brain training app from Posit Science, plus two new exercises designed for the study."

While the term 'geriatric depression' tastes like ashes, I was pleased to see this research. I've been working with BrainHQ for some time and I can feel the neuroplastic growth.

Recommended by Tyler Orion: "PCORI funds studies that can help patients and those who care for them make better-informed healthcare choices."

Tyler - Here are some important FAQs https://help.pcori.org/hc/en-us/categories/200010230-Applicant-Resources I think we might consider a project under their "Accelerating Patient-Centered Outcomes Research & Methodological Research" which is explained here https://www.pcori.org/about-us/our-programs/clinical-effectiveness-and-decision-science

"Panelists: Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D., Professor and Coronavirus Task Force Member, La Jolla Institute for Immunology Evan Y. Snyder, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.A.P, Professor, Sanford Burnham Prebys (SBP) Medical Discovery Institute Joseph Payne, Founder, President and CEO, Arcturus Therapeutics Kate Broderick, Ph.D., Senior VP R&D, Inovio Pharmaceuticals 11:45 AM - 12:30 PM - PANEL DISCUSSION San Diego's Multi-faceted Attack Against the COVID-19 Pandemic From a Diagnostic Perspective Moderator: Pam Gardner, President & CEO, BVS, Inc. Panelists: Doug Bryant, President & CEO, Quidel Corporation Joshua Trotta, Sr. Director, Global Business Development - Clinical Solutions, Genetic Sciences Division, Thermo Fisher Maurice Exner, Ph.D., Vice President, R&D, Assay Development and Clinical Affairs, Hologic, Inc. Susan Tousi, Senior Vice President, Product Development, Illumina, Inc."

"The National Institutes of Health today announced a new initiative aimed at speeding innovation, development and commercialization of COVID-19 testing technologies, a pivotal component needed to return to normal during this unprecedented global pandemic. With a $1.5 billion investment from federal stimulus funding, the newly launched Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative will infuse funding into early innovative technologies to speed development of rapid and widely accessible COVID-19 testing. At the same time, NIH will seek opportunities to move more advanced diagnostic technologies swiftly through the development pipeline toward commercialization and broad availability. NIH will work closely with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to advance these goals."

"So much has been reported over the past six months about testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that keeping up with the issue can be a real challenge. To discuss the latest progress on new technologies for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing in the United States, I spoke recently with NIH's Dr. Bruce Tromberg, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). Not only does Bruce run a busy NIH institute, he is helping to coordinate the national response for expanded testing during the COVID-19 pandemic."

Just announced. June 25, 2020 - California goes Open Source on Covid-19 Data

Recommended by Tyler: "Project Patient Voice has been initiated by the Oncology Center of Excellence to give patients and health care professionals unique information on symptomatic side effects to better inform their treatment choices," said FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Amy Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D. "The Project Patient Voice pilot is a significant step in advancing a patient-centered approach to oncology drug development. Where patient-reported symptom information is collected rigorously, this information should be readily available to patients." "I'm sure this will be useful - and help cancer patients better evaluate treatment options, based on other patients' experience, especially around side effects. I think this is also worth curating." Thanks! Tyler

"Abstract Detection of SARS-CoV-2 infections to date has relied heavily on RT-PCR testing. However, limited test availability, high false-negative rates, and the existence of asymptomatic or sub-clinical infections have resulted in an under-counting of the true prevalence of SARS-CoV-2. Here, we show how influenza-like illness (ILI) outpatient surveillance data can be used to estimate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2. We found a surge of non-influenza ILI above the seasonal average in March 2020 and showed that this surge correlated with COVID-19 case counts across states. If 1/3 of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the US sought care, this ILI surge would have corresponded to more than 8.7 million new SARS-CoV-2 infections across the US during the three-week period from March 8 to March 28, 2020. Combining excess ILI counts with the date of onset of community transmission in the US, we also show that the early epidemic in the US was unlikely to have been doubling slower than every 4 days. Together these results suggest a conceptual model for the COVID-19 epidemic in the US characterized by rapid spread across the US with over 80% infected patients remaining undetected. We emphasize the importance of testing these findings with seroprevalence data and discuss the broader potential to use syndromic surveillance for early detection and understanding of emerging infectious diseases."

"Now, a new study from Penn State estimates that the number of early COVID-19 cases in the U.S. may have been more than 80 times greater and doubled nearly twice as fast as originally believed."

"Many people who contract COVID-19 have only a mild illness, or sometimes no symptoms at all. But others develop respiratory failure that requires oxygen support or even a ventilator to help them recover [1]. It's clear that this happens more often in men than in women, as well as in people who are older or who have chronic health conditions. But why does respiratory failure also sometimes occur in people who are young and seemingly healthy? A new study suggests that part of the answer to this question may be found in the genes that each one of us carries [2]. While more research is needed to pinpoint the precise underlying genes and mechanisms responsible, a recent genome-wide association (GWAS) study, just published in the New England Journal of Medicine, finds that gene variants in two regions of the human genome are associated with severe COVID-19 and correspondingly carry a greater risk of COVID-19-related death."

"After 20 years at UC San Diego, Larry Smarr will step down as the director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) and retire as a distinguished professor from the Jacobs School of Engineering's Computer Science and Engineering Department at the end of this month. Dr. Ramesh Rao, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering, will serve as interim director of Calit2, in addition to his current position as the director of the Qualcomm Institute."

Coronavirus Safety Guide by Andrew Junkin, MD Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Harvard Medical School Boston, MA First published: March 23, 2020 | Last updated: May 3, 2020 This guide is also available in Spanish

"Types of errors can include: Some typographical spelling errors may or may not require correction. For example, if mesenteric is incorrectly spelled "mesentiric," you might not go through the trouble of having it corrected because there won't be any impact on your health or medical care. Errors in the spelling of your name do require correction because this can prevent your records from being shared properly among different providers, and it can affect payment for services. If your phone number or address is incorrect or outdated, you'll want to make sure it gets corrected immediately. Failure to do so will result in the wrong information being copied into future medical records or an inability for your medical team to contact you if needed. Any inaccurate information about your symptoms, diagnosis, or treatment should be corrected. For example, if your record says that you have temporal tumor instead of a testicular tumor, this is completely different and requires correction. If the record says your appointment was at 2 pm, but you never saw the doctor until 3:30 pm, that may not have any bearing on your future health or billing information needs, and it isn't worth correcting."

"You can be an empowered patient or advocate by knowing the basics of HIPAA and having the confidence to request records from providers. Here are some myths about HIPAA and how they affect you, the patient."

"Feel More in Control OpenNotes isn't a product. It's a movement that makes health care more open and transparent by encouraging doctors and other professionals to share their visit notes. Reading your notes can help you manage your health care. Ask your doctor for them!"

"OpenNotes is the international movement that's making health care more transparent. It urges doctors, nurses, therapists, and others to invite patients to read the notes they write to describe a visit."

Recommended by Tyler Orion: Conclusions and Relevance In this study, patients who read ambulatory notes online perceived mistakes, a substantial proportion of which they found to be serious. Older and sicker patients were twice as likely to report a serious error compared with younger and healthier patients, indicating important safety and quality implications. Sharing notes with patients may help engage them to improve record accuracy and health care safety together with practitioners. Meaning  As health information transparency increases, patients may perceive important errors in their visit notes, and inviting them to report mistakes that they believe are very serious may be associated with improved record accuracy and patient engagement in safety."

"Camille Nebeker, Bethany Weisberg, Eric Hekler, and Michael Kurisu Frontiers in Digital Health - This paper is also posted on our PHE Website

Recommended by Mike Kurisu, DO.