Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, JAMA, Pediatrics, Pulmonary Disease / 04.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dott.ssa Silvia Bloise MD Prof. Riccardo Lubrano MD PhD Pediatric and Neonatology Unit Maternal and Child Department Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Pending new evidence, the universal facial masking, with other preventive measures remain the only strategies to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The use of face mask is particularly debated in the children, especially in younger children. Therefore, we wanted to test whether their in children was associated with episodes of desaturation or respiratory distress. (more…)
Allergies, Author Interviews, Dermatology / 17.11.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Yashu Dhamija MD Dr. Thomas Schmidlin, MD Cleveland Clinic Akron General  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We are seeing an increased use of face masks in the COVID-19 pandemic and while that is encouraged and necessary to limit the spread of disease in the general publication, it can mean challenges for some individuals. Patients with known sensitizations to allergens contained in face masks may experience rash or irritation with commonly used face coverings. It is also possible for patients without a history of contact dermatitis to become sensitized to allergens after wearing facial coverings more regularly, thus leading to new cases of contact dermatitis (CD) in individuals with no known prior history of contact dermatitis. (more…)
Author Interviews, BMJ, COVID -19 Coronavirus / 23.09.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joon Seo Lim, PhD, ELS Clinical Research Center Asan Institute for Life Sciences Asan Medical Center, Songpa-gu Seoul, Republic of Korea MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to spread at an alarming rate in all parts of the world, and screening individuals based on symptoms (e.g., fever, cough, anosmia) does not seem to be effective in sufficiently curbing the transmission of the disease. This suggests that asymptomatic individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 may be a driving force of the ongoing pandemic, but empirical evidence on this issue has been lacking because asymptomatic individuals are likely to go unnoticed unless subjected to systematic contact tracing. A large-sized outbreak of COVID-19 from a single religious group in South Korea enabled us to identify and test a large number of asymptomatic individuals with SARS-CoV-2 alongside symptomatic patients from the same cluster.  (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus / 12.04.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bart van Straten, Tim Horeman and John van den Dobbelsteen Research team TU Delft, Delft University of Technology, Dpt. of BioMechanical Engineering The Netherlands  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The background for this study was the urgent shortages of mouth masks in several hospitals. Franciscus Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherland requested on 17 March if face masks could be sterilized since they were facing these shortages. The COVID-19 pandemic and its rapid spread has led to imminent shortages of these masks. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Dermatology / 04.04.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Amit Gefen PhD Professor of Biomedical Engineering The Herbert J. Berman Chair in Vascular Bioengineering Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Although we are witnessing continuous progress in medical technologies, the design of many of the most commonly used medical devices e.g. oxygen masks or cervical collars has changed very little over a period of decades. Not surprisingly, these devices are also the ones which are frequently associated with device-related pressure ulcers (DRPUs). These DRPUs are frequently a hospital-acquired injury which involves risk of infections (including e.g. sepsis and antibiotic-resistant bacteria), scarring with serious psychological consequences, additional and significant healthcare costs and a basis for liability suits and litigation. The problem is massive in Europe and the US and is most frequently encountered in clinical environments where devices are used intensively, such as in operation theatres, intensive care units and emergency care settings (in both adult and pediatric medicine), but also, in elderly care facilities where patients often have fragile skin. With the current pandemic spread of the coronavirus, facilities worldwide are experiencing a considerable rise in usage of emergency and intensive care equipment, which will very likely considerably escalate the incidence of DRPUs. Early in 2019, a committee of global experts which I have chaired, has met for two days of intensive deliberation in London UK, to start developing the first-ever international consensus document on device-related pressure ulcers . After a rigorous review process by an international review committee of other experts, this consensus report has been published as a Special Edition of the Journal of Wound Care in February 2019 (https://doi.org/10.12968/jowc.2020.29.Sup2a.S1), under the name "Device-related pressure ulcers: SECURE prevention". The publisher has kindly made this publication freely downloadable and thereby accessible and available to anyone, including all professionals who may need guidance in this regard, including clinicians, industry, regulators and academic researches. (more…)