A distinctive attribute of COVID-19 is that there are many unknowns. The sickness itself currently has no known cure or proven treatment. Additionally, there are contradicting pieces of information about what should be done to control the virus, which can result in anxiety and fear.

The caliber of this disease has caused people to significantly alter their day-to-day lives. And for those who were already suffering from anxiety before the global outbreak, they are having a particularly challenging time adjusting to these new conditions.

The New Normal

In American culture, it is commonplace to shake hands or hug when greeting someone. Social distancing is a new concept in our communities, thanks to this easily transmittable virus. Sheltering in place, and social distancing when in pubic, can take a toll on our social lives.

People who are in quarantine are proven to develop negative mental health side effects. By definition, according to a published paper on the psychological impact of quarantine, “Quarantine means the separation and restriction of movement of people who have potentially been exposed to a contagious disease to ascertain if they become unwell, so they’re reducing the risk of infection others. This definition is different from isolation — which is the separation of people who have been diagnosed with a contagious disease from people who are not sick; these two terms are often used interchangeably.”

In 24 studies on the psychological impact of a quarantine, “most reported negative psychological effects including post-traumatic stress symptoms, confusion, and anger. Stressors included longer quarantine duration, infection fears, frustration, boredom, inadequate supplies, misinformation, financial loss, and stigma. Some researchers have suggested long-lasting effects.”

How to Maximize Mental Health

In an effort to proactively make mental health a priority as we navigate we’ve compiled several areas to take into consideration.

Structure: Creating an organized framework for your day can be very helpful, particularly if you’re suddenly working from home vs. a traditional office. Planning your day the day before, and actually scheduling when certain tasks, errands or projects will be worked on, can reduce feelings of being overwhelmed. A laundry list of duties, when looked at as a whole, has a way of bringing on anxiety. However, when written down and listed by individual chunks, accomplishing goals can feel more manageable. And don’t forget to pencil in activities for your well-being including hobbies or new endeavors— for example, reading a book, journaling, meditating, or taking a bath.

Professional Support: There are an abundant amount of health care organizations available, including online therapy and telehealth options. Working with a mental health counselor should be one aspect of your overall self-care program including physical activity, sufficient amounts of sleep, and socially distanced or virtual visits with loved ones. To better understand telehealth and its value, click here.

Perspective: Turn the noise down, so to speak. Limit the amount of time spent digesting news about the pandemic, whether on the television, your cell phone, computer or the newspaper. Of course it’s important to be informed and stay updated on the virus, especially if you live in or near a hotspot. However, it’s important to not let the headlines and relentless breaking news reports take over your time and energy. Intentionally decide how much content you’ll expose yourself to daily, and then stick to it.

 Focus on the Facts: Rely on credible resources to provide fact-based information about COVID-19. That may include your primary care physician, a local or state health department, or government organizations.

Make Healthy Choices: This advice is true whether we are facing a pandemic or not. However, it is now more critical than ever to take good care of our minds and bodies. Choose healthy foods, drink half of your body weight (in ounces) of water, limit caffeine and alcohol, aim for 6-8 hours of sleep every night, and shoot for 30 minutes of physical exercise daily.

Proactively Work on Relaxing: When you’re feeling tense or overwhelmed, come back to your breath. Breathe in for four seconds, hold your breath for two seconds, and then slowly exhale for four seconds. Repeat this process 10 times. Other tactics that can help bring on a sense of calmness include stretching, meditating, listen to relaxing music, or engaging in an enjoyable hobby. And lastly, don’t bottle up your feelings — be sure to talk about your emotions to loved ones and friends on a regular basis. Sometimes just ‘getting it out’ can have a cathartic effect.

An excellent resource for mental health is the National Alliance on Mental Illness

In our next blog post, we’ll cover insights and tips on taking care of your physical health during the quarantine.

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As countries around the world work to come up with a proven vaccine, slow the spread in communities, and minimize lives taken by the virus, smartphone apps have become one of many strategies to do just that.

Since the virus can be transmitted from affected people through being in a close vicinity, health authorities have pinpointed “contact tracing” as a helpful tool.When people are physically nearby each other, by using an app on their cell phones, they can exchange data. This creates a rolodex, so to speak, of who the person has been near within a certain timeframe.

The concept of using tracing apps goes something like this — if a cell phone user is infected with COVID-19, the log of people who they came into contact with, would be alerted. In theory, this app tool could help further support a country’s fight to control the outbreak, including social distancing, wearing masks, sheltering at home, and testing.

Coronavirus apps need to be treated like any medical intervention — taking extreme measures of both efficacy and protection. However, since apps are being created independently across the world, there are currently no set standards in place.

Digital Tracing Measures Around the Globe

There are governments, non-profit organizations, and universities around the globe who have begun using opt-in COVID-19 data collecting technology. In most circumstances, governments are collaborating with tech companies to develop these apps.

A contact-tracing app in the UK enables the phone’s owner to report their symptoms. The data that is collected is housed centrally, and users allow health organizations to inform their contacts.

When users of Australia’s COVIDSafe app come in close contact with someone who tests positive for the virus, they are notified by health officials.

Since this information is sensitive in nature, the apps are not mandatory and are strictly voluntary participation.

Here in the United States, mammoth tech companies Apple and Google announced in early April that they are collaborating on measures to help support COVID-19 contact tracing. Their solution includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology.

The businesses are co-creating cryptographic functions with the goal of generating and undertaking the alias directly into the operating systems.

This ability would settle the issue with iPhone’s battery by enabling apps to gather contact data in the framework. Additionally, this would also offer more security protection.

Concerns & Limitations

Theoretically the concept of contact tracing through apps makes perfect sense, but there is minimal published research that proves the effectiveness of slowing the spread by using these apps.

Accuracy is a major concern on the table, and not just for contact tracing apps, but for the testing results themselves. Some people have been contacted that their COVID-19 test came back positive, when they never actually had a test done.

When a contact tracing app is tied to an official authorized test, accurate results are more probable. But in instances when someone has self-diagnosed themselves and incorrect information could be disseminated to a wide contact pool.

Another troublesome worry is individual privacy. Published research from European universities proves that the concept of anonymous data is nearly impossible, “showing methods to correctly re-identify 99.98% of individuals in anonymized data sets,” as reported by TechCrunch.com.

 Another concern is countries centrally storing data, which is can lead to hacking. In the spring, hundreds of leading researchers and scientists signed an open letter petition to governments, advising them to store data in a variety of places.

Last but certainly not least, another major red flag is the need to use bluetooth for the contact-tracing on smartphones to work. Historically, reporting on security breaches indicates that users should disable Bluetooth when they are not using it at that time. In order for these COVID-19 tracking apps to work, cellphone users would need to keep their Bluetooth functions turned on.

Conclusion

Manual contact tracing can be a slow, tedious process, requiring interviews and investigative work. Digital contact tracing does expedite the process, but it should not be used as a replacement for human contact tracing teams, it should simply be seen as a complementary tool.

Ultimately, especially in America, a lack of trust in government will likely make it challenging for a contact tracing app to work at its highest potential.

A cryptographer at Johns Hopkins University, Matthew Green, says the infrastructure is already in place for widespread tracking. In an interview posted on Nature.com, Green explained, “Unfortunately, the idea of letting a government use that information is going to run into a lot of red flags from people, probably rightly. At the same time, this information is used every day — it’s just used in service of targeted advertising, which is something that we sort of put up with.”

We welcome you to regularly visit our blog for ongoing information on relevant and timely topics. At Auxo Medical, we strive to provide valuable content for the healthcare industry.

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The VR marketshare is forecasted to explode to nearly $4 billion this year in the medical ecosystem, as reported by global industry analysts. Grand View Research foresees the market expanding to an unprecedented $5 billion within the next five years.

This cutting edge technology is transforming the healthcare industry across a wide spectrum, from pain management, to training medical students and professionals.

Here are 4 key breakthroughs where VR is making history.

Pandemic Insights

George Washington University hospital is leveraging VR to help grapple the coronavirus disease that is currently pummeling our healthcare system.

A male patient in his 50s, diagnosed with COVID-19, was transferred to GW hospital from another area center after his condition progressed. GW hospital staff made the decision to treat the paitent with virtual reality.

Chief of thoracic surgery at GW Hospital, Dr. Keith Mortman, explained the situation in the hospital’s podcast, “What we’re seeing is that there was rapid and progressive damage to the lungs so that he needed higher levels of support from that ventilator, and it got to the point where he needed maximal support from the ventilator. That was when the outside hospital reached out to our expert team here at GW and the patient was transferred to us for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.”

ECMO is a process when blood is removed from the body, it is then infused with oxygen, and finally returned to the patient. By using VR, the medical team had the ability to see inside the patient’s lungs and understand what damage was occurring.

Detecting Early Alzheimer’s

The University of Cambridge discovered that VR has the potential to help detect early Alzheimer’s disease. With more than half a million UK citizens navigating life with the degenerative disease, the VR research indicates that this technology can not only help with diagnosis, but it is an effective means to monitor the disease too.

 Researchers say that VR could also assist in clinical trials of future medications geared to slow, or even stop the development of Alzheimer’s disease. This neurological research is published in the neurology journal Brain.

Walking Again with Parkinson’s

Recent research, published in Experimental Biology, found that VR technology can help improve stability in people who suffer from Parkinson’s disease. Walking can be taxing for those with Parkinson’s due to nueron damage. Muscle tightness, gait troubles, and relentless tremors can cause injuries, which is why therapies to promote balance is a standard treatment protocol.

K. Bo Foreman, PT, PhD, a professor and director of the Motion Capture Core Facility at the University of Utah, shared, “We are hopeful that this improved performance relates to decreased falls in their everyday life. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disease, and anything we can do to impact the progression is a step in the right direction.”

The VR approach helped enhance the balance and confidence of patients in moving around obstacles, according to the findings of those who participated in the Parkinson’s study.

Surgery Planning

A Children’s Hospital in Tampa, Florida, St. Joseph’s, is using VR technology  flight simulations to produce the anatomy of patient models. The models are created using computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images. These 360-degree insights give pediatric surgeons a complete perspective to create a detailed plan.

Surgical Theater Precision Virtual Reality is the technology used to create these representations; it is the same technology used in F-16 aircraft simulations. This VR tool is being applied in the hospital’s surgery programs, including neurology and cardiac.

Take a look at how far VR has come in our last blog .

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