27 Aug Testing Surfaces for COVID-19 in a Radiation Oncology Clinic

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Haffty

Bruce G. Haffty, MD FACR FASTRO FASCO
Associate Vice Chancellor Cancer Programs
Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences
Professor and Chair, Dept. Radiation Oncology
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson and New Jersey Medical Schools
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? : What are the main findings?

Response: That at peak times of COVID in NJ, in a tertiary care hospital with lots of COVID patients, where cancer patients still need to get treated, there was no evidence of surface COVID contamination, which should be reassuring to patients requiring radiation treatment in a busy hospital with a high in patient population of COVID patients.

It should be noted that patients and staff were routinely mask wearing, observing social distancing and routinely hand washing as well as screening patients as they came in to the department with temperature checks and questions regarding symptoms.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: That provided the usual precautions of screening, masking, hand washing etc. that the environment of our radiation oncology clinic was safe even during the height of the COVID pandemic in NJ. That getting their needed cancer care in medical and radiation oncology should continue and they can be reassured that the environment is safe.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work? 

Response: Continued precautions and getting additional data from surgical, medical oncology and other clinical areas.

Nothing to disclose.

Citation:

Jan I, Chen K, Sayan M, et al. Prevalence of Surface Contamination With SARS-CoV-2 in a Radiation Oncology Clinic. JAMA Oncol. Published online August 27, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.3552

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Last Updated on August 27, 2020 by Marie Benz MD FAAD