Newsmakers

Stephen Parodi, MD, national infectious disease leader for Kaiser Permanente, commented in Fierce Healthcare on Kaiser Permanente’s multipronged COVID-19 suppression strategy, which was outlined in a NEJM Catalyst article earlier this week. That strategy includes 8 key capabilities health systems need to consider as the country reopens.

In an article published this week in NEJM Catalyst, Kaiser Permanente physicians and leaders acknowledge the conundrum of reopening the country for business while preventing successive waves of coronavirus infection, and describe the next strategic phase in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic: disease suppression.

Despite its massive human toll, the COVID-19 pandemic can serve as a catalyst for reimagining the future of health care delivery, Imelda Dacones, MD, wrote in a recent opinion piece posted on KevinMD.com.

While the federal government’s temporary pause on quality reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic may provide an opportunity to reevaluate and streamline its requirements, such streamlining should ultimately contribute to quality outcomes for patients, Nancy Gin, MD, said in a recent interview with Modern Healthcare.

Vincent Liu, MD, a specialist in critical care medicine with The Permanente Medical Group, commented on a Kaiser Permanente study that found important differences in outcomes among hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the western United States and other parts of the world.

While participating in a Modern Healthcare webinar, “Leading Through Crisis: What COVID-19 is Teaching Us,” Richard S. Isaacs, MD, FACS, described how collaboration among the integrated entities that comprise Kaiser Permanente has improved resource allocation and the organization’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California have treated significantly fewer heart attacks since the COVID-19 outbreak began in early March compared with the same period in 2019, Matthew Solomon, MD, of The Permanente Medical Group told HealthDay.

Edward Ellison, MD, was quoted in an article by The Wall Street Journal sharing how the COVID-19 pandemic takes its toll on frontline physicians and nurses.

Don Mordecai, MD, a psychiatrist with The Permanente Medical Group and Kaiser Permanente’s national leader for mental health and wellness, describes in a CNBC article how the organization has been using the Calm mobile app in clinical settings to support patients’ mental health prior to recently expanding its availability to members.