Here are the stories our MDedge editors across specialties think you need to know about today:
FDA seeks COVID-19 info through CURE ID
Federal health officials are asking clinicians to use the free CURE ID mobile app and web platform as a tool to collect information on the treatment of patients with COVID-19. CURE ID is an Internet-based data repository first developed in 2013 as a collaboration between the Food and Drug Administration and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. It provides licensed clinicians worldwide with an opportunity to report novel uses of existing drugs for patients with difficult-to-treat infectious diseases, including COVID-19, through a website, a smartphone, or other mobile device. “By utilizing the CURE ID platform now for COVID-19 case collection – in conjunction with data gathered from other registries, EHR systems, and clinical trials – data collected during an outbreak can be improved and coordinated,” said Heather A. Stone, MPH, a health science policy analyst in the office of medical policy at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “This may allow us to find possible treatments to help ease this pandemic, and prepare us better to fight the next one.” Read more.
Hospitalists take on new roles in COVID era
Whether it’s working shifts in the ICU, caring for ventilator patients, or reporting to postanesthesia care units and post-acute or step-down units, hospitalists are stepping into a variety of new roles as part of their frontline response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Valerie Vaughn, MD, a hospitalist with Michigan Medicine and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, was doing research on how to reduce overuse of antibiotics in hospitals when the COVID-19 crisis hit and dramatically redefined her job. “We were afraid that we might have 3,000 to 5,000 hospitalized COVID patients by now, based on predictive modeling done while the pandemic was still growing exponentially,” she explained. Although Michigan continues to have high COVID-19 infection rates, centered on nearby Detroit, “things are a lot better today than they were 4 weeks ago.” Dr. Vaughn helped to mobilize a team of 25 hospitalists, along with other health care professionals, who volunteered to manage COVID-19 patients in the ICU and other hospital units. Read more.
COVID-19 recommendations for rheumatic disease treatment
The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) issued provisional recommendations for the management of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases in the context of SARS-CoV-2. Contrary to earlier expectations, there is no indication that patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases have a higher risk of contracting the virus or have a worse course if they do, according to the task force that worked on the recommendations. The task force also pointed out that rheumatology drugs are being used to treat COVID-19 patients who don’t have rheumatic diseases, raising the possibility of a shortage of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Read more.
Mental health visits are 19% of ED costs
Mental and substance use disorders represented 19% of all emergency department visits in 2017 and cost $14.6 billion, according to figures from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The most costly mental and substance use disorder diagnosis was anxiety and fear-related disorders, accounting for $5.6 billion worth of visits, following by depressive disorders and alcohol-related disorders. Read more.