Author: PPAHS

Black Lives Matter, Healthcare Inequalities, and the Need for Systemic Change

As of June 5, 2020, the World Health Organization reports that there are more than 1.8 million confirmed cases or COVID-19 and 106,876 deaths due to COVID-19 in the United States.

Black Lives Matter: Higher Risk of Dying from COVID

While WHO statistics are mind-numbing, what they don’t show is that the COVID pandemic has disproportionately affected some American communities more than others. In an analysis by researchers at Yale University and the University of Pittsburgh, they found that:

black people are more than 3.5 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than white people, and Latino people are nearly twice as likely to die of the virus as white people,

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Questions We’d Love to Answer on Virtual Patient Care, but Can’t

By Michael Wong (Founder/Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety), Lynn G. Razzano, RN, MSN, ONC, CMSRN (Clinical Nurse Consultant, PPAHS), and Thereza B. Ayad, RN, MSN, DNP, CNOR (Clinical Nurse Consultant, PPAHS)

Virtual Patient Care Launched to Help Patients

We started Virtual Patient Care to help patients during the current COVID pandemic. Helping patients is what motivated BMS-Pfizer Alliance to provide us with grant support. Helping patients is why the American Heart Association, AC Forum, Heart Rhythm Society, StopAfib.org, Mended Hearts, and Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association have provided such great support and help for Virtual Patient Care. To read the press release on Virtual Patient Care, click here.

Since we launched Virtual Patient Care, we have received many questions from patients asking us to diagnose their ailments or asking us to explain why a certain treatment or medication isn’t curing them.

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Exercising During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Editor’s note: Keeping physically active has a great many benefits and, during the current COVID-19 situation, physical activity is recommended for emotional and mental health, as well as to boost your immune system. However, as everyone’s different, please speak with your doctor about finding the right level of fitness activity for you.

One of the questions we’ve received on the chat line and which we’d like to share the answer to is about exercising during the current COVID-19 pandemic. This is a question that many have probably asked themselves.

There are many benefits to staying physically active, particularly following surgery. However, during the current COVID-19 circumstances that require social distancing and have necessitated the closure of facilities – particularly gyms, pools, and parks – staying physically active can be especially challenging.

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FREE Patient-to-Nurse Chat Line

Please Note: As the COVID Pandemic has ended, the nursing chatline has been shut down.

PLEASE DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR HEALTH IN THE COMMENT SECTION OR INCLUDE ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOURSELF.

If you’d like a confidential chat with us, please go to our Virtual Patient Care website, by clicking here.

We will try to answer questions asked in the comment section as the answers may be helpful to other patients.

Virtual Patient Care is a free online service where patients can speak with experienced registered nurses and get personalized answers to their questions.

In this video by Michael Wong, Founder and Executive Director of the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety explains what prompted the Physician-Patient Alliance and its cardiovascular partners – American Heart Association, AC Forum, Heart Rhythm Society, StopAfib.org, Mended Hearts, and Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association – to establish a nursing chat line:

“During the current COVID-19 conditions, patients face the burdens of social distancing and increased difficulty in reaching clinicians busy with emergencies. To meet the pressing needs of patients during this COVID pandemic, the Physician-Patient Alliance, with an unrestricted grant from the BMS-Pfizer Alliance, and our cardiovascular partners recently launched a free virtual patient care website and chat line.”

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Blood Clots in COVID Patients

Editor’s note: Blood clots are occurring in patients diagnosed with COVID-19. This article offers some of the key treatments and recommendations you may experience when admitted to hospital and then discharged home. As well, it discusses the interim clinical guidance from the Anticoagulation Forum.

By Michael Wong (Founder/Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)

An average of 274 people die from blood clots – which works out to about one death every six minutes. These statistics are pre-COVID statistics.

Because of the current COVID-19 pandemic, this may be changing. There have been reports about the development of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with COVID-19. The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis has collected a number of studies and case reports on thrombosis in COVID-19 patients, and the Journal of American College of Cardiology released a review of current understanding, citing many of the studies and case reports which are on the ISTH site.

This COVID-19 pandemic is proving a challenge for clinicians to care for patients diagnosed with COVID-19. The interim clinical guidance from the Anticoagulation Forum (AC Interim Guidance) discusses the challenges of diagnosing a thrombotic event in COVID patients:

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COVID-19 Patients Are at a Greater Risk of Blood Clots

Editor’s note: Our understanding of COVID-19 symptomatology is evolving as the current pandemic unfolds. The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis has collected a number of studies and case reports on thrombosis in COVID-19 patients. The Journal of American College of Cardiology released a review of current understanding, citing many of the studies and case reports which are on the ISTH site. This COVID-19 pandemic challenges us to use current knowledge and innovate new approaches to care for patients diagnosed with COVID-19. This article seeks to summarize some of the current knowledge about thrombosis in COVID-19 patients, knowing that future studies and case reports will undoubtedly refine the statements made below. However, this is science, continually evolving and improving based on current understanding. With that, this article offers some insights about VTE in patients admitted to the hospital who have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

By Michael Wong (Founder/Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety), Laurie Paletz, BSN PHN RN BC SCRN (Manager, Stroke Program Department of Neurology, Cedars-Sinai), and Thereza B. Ayad, RN, MSN, DNP, CNOR (Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Medical School-Graduate School of Nursing; Surgical Services Clinical Staff Educator, North Shore Medical Center)

(reviewed by Sue Koob, MPA, Chief Executive Officer, Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association and Pat Salber, MD, MBA, Editor-in-Chief, DoctorWeighsIn)

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Going to the Dentist in this COVID-19 Era

Editor’s note: As many states look to “re-open,” some of us may be looking to do what might have been put off during the last few weeks of COVID-19 isolation – such as, going to the dentist. T help Michael Wong, JD (Founder/Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety) interviewed Bradley T. Truax, MD about what precautions dentists and their patients should consider.

By Michael Wong, JD (Founder/Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)

As many states look to “re-open,” some of us may be looking to do what might have been put off during the last few weeks of COVID-19 isolation – such as, going to the dentist.

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Nursing the World to Health

Editor’s note: The theme for this year’s national nurses’ day could not be more appropriate given the current COVID-19 crisis “Nursing the World to Health.” The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety is proud that nurses are leading the virtual chat line that we launched to support cardiovascular and particularly patients with atrial fibrillation (Afib).

By Michael Wong, JD (Founder/Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)

The theme for this year’s national nurses’ day could not be more appropriate given the current COVID-19 crisis “Nursing the World to Health.”

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Great COVID-19 Advice and Resources from Our Cardiovascular Partners

If you have questions, the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety launched a free online service (the CV Virtual Clinic) where patients can speak with experienced registered nurses and get personalized answers to their questions.

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