CMS Chief Says $81B Released in Accelerated Payments for COVID-19

“It should raise the eyebrows of first-line responders and physicians who are seeing patients with neurologic conditions to consider if those could also be a manifestation of COVID-19,” said one expert, though another pointed out that the coexistence of COVID-19 with a patient’s neurologic symptoms doesn’t establish a link. 

“It is too early to say that we know definitively that COVID-19 causes neurological symptoms, although we think it does,” he said.

What You Think of the Reaction to COVID-19

Yesterday we asked readers to tell Medscape what they thought of how their fellow clinicians, patients, and national governments have reacted
to COVID-19. 

As of this afternoon, 828 physicians had responded. Sixty-six percent said they think other clinicians’ reaction to COVID-19 is proportionate to the threat, 55% think their patients’ reaction to COVID-19 is proportionate to the threat, and 26% think their governments’ response is proportionate to the threat. Forty-seven percent said they think their national governments’ response is an underreaction, and the rest think their government is overreacting. 

A little about the demographics of the physicians who responded to our poll: 74% primarily practice in the US, 58% are older than age 55, 37% work in an office-based practice compared to 29% in a hospital, and 48% describe their current work situation as employed, vs an owner, partner, or independent contractor. 

COVID-19 Ventilation Protocol Tool

Adapted from an algorithm developed by the Toronto Centre of Excellence in Mechanical Ventilation (CoEMV), this tool provides guidance to optimize ventilatory management of critically ill patients with COVID-19. 

In addition to guiding HCPs through the CoEMV algorithm, it provides brief videos that clearly show how to perform the advanced ventilatory techniques being described. The tool is also available on Medscape’s smartphone app. 

In Memoriam

As frontline healthcare workers care for patients with COVID-19, they commit themselves to difficult, draining work and also put themselves at risk of infection. Hundreds throughout the world have died. 

Medscape has published a memorial list to commemorate them. We will continue updating this list as, sadly, needed. Please help us ensure this list is complete by submitting names with an age, profession or specialty, and location through this form.