2- Tuesday Pharmacy Practice News – 24th August

1 – From intensive care to step-down units: Managing patients throughput in response to COVID-19

• The on-going COVID-19 pandemic may cause the collapse of healthcare systems because of unprecedented hospitalization rates.
• A total of 8.2 individuals per 1000 inhabitants have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in our province. The hospital predisposed 110 beds for COVID-19 patients: on the day of the local peak, 90% of them were occupied and intensive care unit (ICU) faced unprecedented admission rates, fearing system collapse.
• A nine-bed SDU was created next to the ICU, led by intensivists and ICU nurses, with adequate personal protective equipment, monitoring systems and ventilators for respiratory support when needed.
• A second six-bed SDU was also created.
• COVID-19 is like an enduring mass casualty incident.
• Solutions tailored on local epidemiology and available resources should be implemented to preserve the efficiency and adaptability of our institutions and provide the adequate sanitary response.

Source: Oxford Academic

2 – COVID-19 trial graph: a linked graph for COVID-19 clinical trials

• Clinical trials are an essential part of the effort to find safe and effective prevention and treatment for COVID-19.
• Given the rapid growth of COVID-19 clinical trials, there is an urgent need for a better clinical trial information retrieval tool that supports searching by specifying criteria, including both eligibility criteria and structured trial information.
• The COVID-19 Trial Graph is a novel representation of clinical trials that allows diverse search queries and provides a graph-based visualization of COVID-19 clinical trials.
• High-dimensional vectors mapped by graph embedding for clinical trials would be potentially beneficial for many downstream applications, such as trial end recruitment status prediction and trial similarity comparison.

Source: Oxford Academic

3 – Usability, inclusivity, and content evaluation of COVID-19 contact tracing apps in the United States

• This study evaluated the usability of mobile COVID-19 contact tracing apps, especially for individuals with barriers to communication and limited digital literacy skills.
• They searched the Apple App Store, Google Play, peer-reviewed literature, and lay press to find contact tracing apps in the United States.
• They evaluated apps with a framework focused on user characteristics and user interface.
• Most apps alert users of COVID-19 exposure but require high English reading levels and are not fully inclusive of the U.S. population, which may limit their reach as public health tools.

Source: Oxford Academic

4- Implementing an emergency department pharmacy service and its effect on medication safety

• This service innovation project examined the effect an Emergency Department (ED) pharmacy service had on medication-related safety markers.
• A pre-test/post-test design captured medication-related safety markers on admission data at ward level after patients had been seen in the ED.
• The markers were, medication omitted, incorrect medicines prescribed and the number of incorrect doses or frequency of dose
• The service reduced medication error and the findings allowed a permanent pharmacy service to be introduced.

Source: Oxford Academic

5 – Booster Shots for mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Offer Improved Protection From Variants of Concern

• An autumn booster dose of COVID-19 vaccines could be an effective way to protect individuals from current and future variants of concern, according to a study published in Science Translational Medicine.
• The investigators found that antibodies generated by a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was less effective at neutralizing variants of concern, but the second dose dramatically increased responses to virus variants.
• The investigators examined a cohort of health care workers who were vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
• Approximately half of the participants were naturally pre-exposed to the virus, and the investigators compared the antibody responses of those who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 with those who had not.
• According to the investigators, the study data suggest that the immunity generated from SARS-CoV-2 infection results in lower levels of protection against viral variants, whereas vaccination greatly increases the number of neutralizing antibodies.
• By extension, those who have not been infected should receive both the initial dose and a booster vaccination.

Source: Pharmacy Times

6 – CDC Recommends COVID-19 Vaccination for Pregnant, Breastfeeding Individuals

• New recommendations from the CDC urge pregnant and breastfeeding individuals to receive COVID-19 vaccinations and note that pregnant or recently pregnant women are more likely to be severely ill if diagnosed with COVID-19.
• Notably, those who are pregnant or were recently pregnant are at an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 compared with non-pregnant people.
• According to the recommendations, severe illness is defined as illness that requires hospitalization, intensive care, a ventilator or special equipment to breathe, or illness that results in death.
• Furthermore, the recommendations say pregnant individuals with COVID-19 are at an increased risk of preterm birth and may have an elevated risk for other adverse pregnancy outcomes.
• Evidence about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines during pregnancy has been growing, according to the new CDC guidelines.
• The data suggest that the benefits of vaccination outweigh any known or potential risks of vaccination during pregnancy and there is currently no evidence that any vaccines cause fertility problems in women or men.

Source: Pharmacy Times

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