Coronavirus (COVID-19) Q&A

Interview with Grayson W. Armstrong, MD, MPH, author of Association of Patient Characteristics With Delivery of Ophthalmic Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic, and Fasika Ambachew Woreta, MD, MPH, author of Analysis of Sex Diversity Trends Among Ophthalmology Match Applicants, Residents, and Clinical Faculty

Many patients experience neurocognitive deficits, PTSD, and generalized weakness and disability following an intensive care unit (ICU) stay. JAMA Medical News Senior Writer Rita Rubin talks with E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, about ICU aftereffects, post-acute COVID-19 syndrome, and how the coronavirus pandemic, particularly hospitals’ restrictions on visitors, impeded progress made since the 1990s in caring for the critically ill.

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How COVID-19 Made It Even Tougher to Know ICU Patients as Individuals

Many patients experience neurocognitive deficits, PTSD, and generalized weakness and disability following an intensive care unit (ICU) stay. JAMA Medical News Senior Writer Rita Rubin talks with E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, about ICU aftereffects, post-acute COVID-19 syndrome, and how the coronavirus pandemic, particularly hospitals’ restrictions on visitors, impeded progress made since the 1990s in caring for the critically ill.

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How COVID-19 Made It Even Tougher to Know ICU Patients as Individuals

We know that the pandemic caused millions of people to lose their jobs, and potentially their job-based insurance, and yet new survey data showed surprisingly small changes in uninsurance rates at the end of 2020. Kate Bundorf, PhD, from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University and Jessica Banthin, PhD, of the Urban Institute talk to JAMA Health Forum Deputy Editor Melinda Buntin about these trends and the role played by Medicaid and exchange coverage. JAMA Health Forum Editor John Ayanian and Melinda Buntin also discuss other recent work about health insurance coverage and the ACA that has appeared in JAMA Health Forum.

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• Trends in US Health Insurance Coverage During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Fewer People May Have Become Uninsured in 2020 Than Feared
• Outcomes After Changes to US Health Insurance Marketplace Automatic Renewal Rules
• Income Eligibility for Medicaid vs Marketplace Coverage for Insurance Enrollment Among Low-Income Adults
• Making the Affordable Care Act Marketplace More Affordable

Interview with Alexander T. Hillel, M.D., author of Quantifying Viral Particle Aerosolization Risk During Tracheostomy Surgery and Tracheostomy Care

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• Safety Recommendations for Evaluation and Surgery of the Head and Neck During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching effects on the use of health care services. Dr Nora Becker of the University of Michigan talks about her research on reductions in the use of women’s preventive health services, and JAMA Health Forum Editors Dr John Ayanian and Dr Melinda Buntin discuss other JAMA Health Forum pieces on the effects of state “reopenings” on COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, the effects of day care closures on women’s participation in the labor force, and news about nursing home outbreaks of COVID-19.

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• Utilization of Women’s Preventive Health Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• CDC Estimates Thousands of Excess Deaths Among US Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease During COVID-19 Pandemic’s Early Months
• Most US Nursing Homes Had Multiple, Sustained COVID-19 Outbreaks, GAO Reports
• Association of Childcare Facility Closures With Employment Status of US Women vs Men During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• US Trends in COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization and Mortality Rates Before and After Reopening Economies
• Lessons Emerging From COVID-19 Responses by US States

The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching effects on the use of health care services. Dr Nora Becker of the University of Michigan talks about her research on reductions in the use of women’s preventive health services, and JAMA Health Forum Editors Dr John Ayanian and Dr Melinda Buntin discuss other JAMA Health Forum pieces on the effects of state “reopenings” on COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, the effects of day care closures on women’s participation in the labor force, and news about nursing home outbreaks of COVID-19.

Related Content:

• Utilization of Women’s Preventive Health Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• CDC Estimates Thousands of Excess Deaths Among US Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease During COVID-19 Pandemic’s Early Months
• Most US Nursing Homes Had Multiple, Sustained COVID-19 Outbreaks, GAO Reports
• Association of Childcare Facility Closures With Employment Status of US Women vs Men During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• US Trends in COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization and Mortality Rates Before and After Reopening Economies
• Lessons Emerging From COVID-19 Responses by US States

Lung transplantation has become an option of last resort for a small subset of patients with COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) or pulmonary fibrosis. Ankit Bharat, MD, chief of Thoracic Surgery and director of Lung Transplant and ECMO at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, discusses his experience performing lung transplants for patients with respiratory failure due to COVID-19, including the first successful double lung transplant in the US for a patient with COVID-19-related ARDS.

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Lung Transplants for COVID-19—The Option of Last Resort

Researchers Tie Severe Immunosuppression to Chronic COVID-19 and Virus Variants; An Inside Look at a Post–COVID-19 Clinic; COVID-19 and the “Lost Year” for Smokers Trying to Quit

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• Researchers Tie Severe Immunosuppression to Chronic COVID-19 and Virus Variants
• An Inside Look at a Post–COVID-19 Clinic
• COVID-19 and the “Lost Year” for Smokers Trying to Quit

COVID-19 leaves some people with a troubling constellation of symptoms that has been known as long-haul COVID but now has a more formal name: postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). Currently, 33 states in the US have at least 1 clinic dedicated to caring for patients with PASC. Aluko Hope, MD, a pulmonary and critical care physician, cofounded the Montefiore-Einstein COVID-19 Recovery Clinic in New York in 2020. Now the medical director of the Long Covid-19 Program at the Oregon Health & Sciences University, Dr Hope provides insight into the care provided at a post-COVID-19 clinic.

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An Inside Look at a Post–COVID-19 Clinic