[COVID-TECH AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN FOREIGN AND RUSSIAN HEALTH CARE DURING THE NEW CORONAVIRUS INFECTION PANDEMIC].

The novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) pandemic has become the biggest challenge to global and national health systems in the last 100 years. At the same time, the rapid spread of COVID-19, which required the introduction of quarantine measures, the need to maintain social distance and isolate the infected, spurred the development of information technology (IT). In healthcare, information technology has begun to play the role of support systems for various types of medical activities that have experienced a tremendous increase in workload. The use of modern information technologies in the fight against the consequences and spread of the pandemic has even acquired its own term - COVID-Tech. The article provides an overview of the achievements of COVID-Tech made in the world and in Russia since the beginning of the pandemic. Experts identify 6 main areas of application of information technologies in medicine during a pandemic: diagnostics and screening of COVID-19, search for treatment regimens for the disease and new drugs based on big data analysis, work with databases, their analysis and analytics (for example, creating maps of the spread of a pandemic virus SARS-CoV-2), monitoring social distancing, the spread of the disease, information support for the population during a global emergency, the use of telemedicine technologies in medical education and the use of robotic assistants. For each of the 6 areas, an overview of the developed technologies is presented. An assessment was made of the contribution of information technology to addressing urgent health issues during a period of increased workload.

[Peculiarities of Mild Asthma in Russia: the Results of SYGMA2 Study].

AIM: Patients with mild asthma may experience severe exacerbations. This analysis was conducted to investigate regional peculiarities of mild asthma population in Russia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The SYGMA2 is a double-blind multinational study involving adult patients with mild asthma (n=4176). We conducted an open-label descriptive analysis of the baseline characteristics of the Russian group (n=579) of SYGMA2 trial comparing to SYGMA2 population from other countries. The subanalysis was descriptive only, and no hypothesis were tested. RESULTS: The Russian population of patients with mild asthma was comparable to the rest of countries in terms of demographic characteristics, smoking status and duration of asthma. The spirometric parameters in the Russian group was slightly worse than in the other population. At the study entry 48% of Russian patients had symptom control on maintenance therapy, but 52% were uncontrolled on short-acting bronchodilators. While in other countries this ratio was inverse (55/45%). More patients with mild asthma in the Russian group had at least one severe exacerbation in the previous year (30.1% vs 20.7% in other countries). CONCLUSION: We revealed a delayed prescription of controller therapy and overuse of short-acting bronchodilators in the Russian group of mild asthma patients, that may increase risk of asthma non-control and severe exacerbation.

[The concept of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease clinical control as a decision - making tool in real clinical practice for optimizing of basic pharmacotherapy].

The main goals of COPD therapy are to achieve clinical stability with minimal clinical manifestations and low risk of relapse. The proposed COPD control concept by analogy with asthma has not been quite well characterized yet. COPD control is defined as "the long - term maintenance of a clinical situation with a low impact of symptoms on the patient's life and absence of exacerbations." The situation of clinical control in COPD is considered desirable and potentially achievable for most patients with COPD. Pharmacotherapeutic options for COPD are constantly expanding. The control concept may be useful when the decision on treatment of COPD is made for dynamic adjustment of the therapy volume.

Pulmonary vasculitis: diagnosis and treatment.

Pulmonary vasculitis is a group of rapidly progressing severe diseases characterized by vascular inflammation, destruction and necrosis of the pulmonary tissue. The pathological process in the lungs varies from diffuse alveolar hemorrhage to inflammation of the parenchyma, pleural effusion, thrombotic and thromboembolic complications. Depending on the size of the affected vessels, vasculites are divided into vasculites of large, medium and small vessels. Most frequently the lung is found in the small vessels vasculitis, including ANCA-associated vasculitis [granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GP), eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA)] and the disease is glomerular basement membrane (goodpasture syndrome). Clinical examination of other systems and organs involved in the pathological process, including the skin and kidneys, as well as the detection of autoantibodies can improve approaches to early diagnosis and treatment of vasculitis. Treatment of life-threatening pulmonary bleeding and irreversible damage to organs, especially the kidneys, requires rapid diagnosis of these conditions. Vasculitis is a rare disease with lesions of many organs, and methods of their treatment, including biological, are rapidly developing, which requires the cooperation of doctors of various specialties and specialized centers to achieve better control of the disease.