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CMSS urges strong action ‘to ensure safer working conditions’ for frontline medical professionals
In a new statement published on April 2, 2020, all 45 societies represented by the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS)—over 800,000 physicians—emphatically declared their belief that all frontline healthcare professionals must have access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and be…
Call for older physicians to be protected from COVID-19
Hospitals and government health departments should give careful consideration to the protection of older physicians and nurses in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a viewpoint published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Peter I.…
‘Desperate times require desperate measures,’ SVS Town Hall on COVID-19 hears
The imperatives of preserving personal protective equipment (PPE) in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic were given a robust airing during a Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Town Hall on the specialty’s early experiences with the coronavirus strain. Some of…
COVID-19 special: How to be a doctor at the end of the world
Vascular Specialist medical editor Malachi Sheahan III, MD, is no stranger to national and international emergencies—from New York City during both the 1990s AIDS crisis and the terrorist attack on 9/11, to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Here,…
Integrity of clinical trials should be ‘preserved’ in face of COVID-19
Efforts and resources should be directed toward continuing randomized clinical trials in spite of the specter of the coronavirus pandemic. This is because of the potential of such studies to help millions of people suffering from debilitating chronic diseases, according…
Vascular surgeons will survive these ‘troubled waters,’ says SVS president
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) is a “solidly built bridge” across the troubled waters of the coronavirus pandemic, president Kim Hodgson, MD, today proclaimed. The path to the other side of the current COVID-19 crisis may not be clear…
Prominent Seattle hospital issues COVID-19 clinical practice guidelines for vascular surgery
A prominent hospital operating on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic in Washington state has released a set of clinical practice guidelines for vascular surgery. They were put together by Benjamin W. Starnes, MD, professor and chief in the division…
American College of Surgeons releases new clinical guidance document for elective surgical case triage during COVID-19
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) has issued guidance for surgeons to curtail recommendations for elective surgical procedures to preserve the necessary resources for care of critically ill patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. To assist in surgical decision-making in curtailing…
National emergency loosens restrictions on use of telemedicine, says VESS secretary
Performance of telemedicine has been made easier and more accessible after regulations and limitations on its use were waived in the wake of the declaration of a national emergency sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Misty Humphries, MD, secretary…
VESS: Vascular surgeons urged to avoid admissions not ‘immediate’ threat to life and limb amid coronavirus pandemic
Vascular surgeons have been urged to support the health of the entire U.S. population “by immediately reducing resource expenditure, avoiding all surgical admissions unless immediately life or limb threatening and, most importantly, by staying home.” The advisory came in a…