Trial by fire: How physicians responding to the COVID-19 pandemic illuminated the need for digital credentials.

The current credentialing process for physicians struggled to accommodate fluctuating regional demands for providers during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic. This hurdle highlighted existing inefficiencies and difficulties facing healthcare systems across the world and led us to explore how credentialing can be improved using digital technologies. We explain how this is a critical moment to make the shift from physical to digital credentials by specifying how a digital credentialing system could simplify onboarding for providers, enable secure expansion of telehealth services, and enhance information exchange.

Medium-term mortality after hip fractures and COVID-19: A prospective multi-centre UK study.

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused 1.4 million deaths globally and is associated with a 3-4 times increase in 30-day mortality after a fragility hip fracture with concurrent COVID-19 infection. Typically, death from COVID-19 infection occurs between 15 and 22 days after the onset of symptoms, but this period can extend up to 8 weeks. This study aimed to assess the impact of concurrent COVID-19 infection on 120-day mortality after a fragility hip fracture. METHODS: A multi-centre prospective study across 10 hospitals treating 8% of the annual burden of hip fractures in England between 1st March and 30th April, 2020 was performed. Patients whose surgical treatment was payable through the National Health Service Best Practice Tariff mechanism for "fragility hip fractures" were included in the study. Patients' 120-day mortality was assessed relative to their peri-operative COVID-19 status. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 27. RESULTS: A total of 746 patients were included in this study, of which 87 (11.7%) were COVID-19 positive. Mortality rates at 30- and 120-day were significantly higher for COVID-19 positive patients relative to COVID-19 negative patients (p < 0.001). However, mortality rates between 31 and 120-day were not significantly different (p = 0.107), 16.1% and 9.4% respectively for COVID-19 positive and negative patients, odds ratio 1.855 (95% CI 0.865-3.978). CONCLUSION: Hip fracture patients with concurrent COVID-19 infection, provided that they are alive at day-31 after injury, have no significant difference in 120-day mortality. Despite the growing awareness and concern of "long-COVID" and its widespread prevalence, this does not appear to increase medium-term mortality rates after a hip fracture.

Early outcomes of patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty for trauma during COVID-19.

AIMS: This study aimed to identify patients receiving total hip arthroplasty (THA) for trauma during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK and quantify the risks of contracting SARS-CoV-2 virus, the proportion of patients requiring treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU), and rate of complications including mortality. METHODS: All patients receiving a primary THA for trauma in four regional hospitals were identified for analysis during the period 1 March to 1 June 2020, which covered the current peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. RESULTS: Overall, one of 48 patients (2%) contracted COVID-19 during their admission. Although they required a protracted stay in hospital, they did not require ICU treatment. Two patients did require ICU support for medical problems but not relating to COVID-19. Complications were no greater than expected given the short follow-up. There were no mortalities. CONCLUSION: There is a paucity of evidence to guide restarting elective joint arthroplasties following the COVID-19 pandemic. Although THAs for trauma are by no means a perfect surrogate, the results of this study show a low incidence of contracting COVID-19 virus during admission and no significant sequalae during this period.Cite this article: Bone Joint Open 2020;1-7:438-442.

Shoulder replacement surgery for osteoarthritis and rotator cuff tear arthropathy.

BACKGROUND: Shoulder replacement surgery is an established treatment for patients with end-stage glenohumeral osteoarthritis or rotator cuff tear arthropathy who have not improved with non-operative treatment. Different types of shoulder replacement are commonly used, but their relative benefits and risks compared versus one another and versus other treatments are uncertain. This expanded scope review is an update of a Cochrane Review first published in 2010. OBJECTIVES: To determine the benefits and harms of shoulder replacement surgery in adults with osteoarthritis (OA) of the shoulder, including rotator cuff tear arthropathy (RCTA). SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, SportDiscus, and Web of Science up to January 2019. We also searched clinical trial registers, conference proceedings, and reference lists from previous systematic reviews and included studies. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised studies comparing any type of shoulder replacement surgery versus any other surgical or non-surgical treatment, no treatment, or placebo. We also included randomised studies comparing any type of shoulder replacement or technique versus another. Study participants were adults with osteoarthritis of the glenohumeral joint or rotator cuff tear arthropathy. We assessed the following major outcomes: pain, function, participant-rated global assessment of treatment success, quality of life, adverse events, serious adverse events, and risk of revision or re-operation or treatment failure. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. We collected trial data on benefits and harms. MAIN RESULTS: We included 20 studies involving 1083 participants (1105 shoulders). We found five studies comparing one type of shoulder replacement surgery to another type of shoulder replacement surgery, including three studies comparing conventional stemmed total shoulder replacement (TSR) surgery to stemmed humeral hemiarthroplasty. The remaining 15 studies compared one type of shoulder replacement to the same type of replacement performed with a technical modification or a different prosthetic component. We found no studies comparing shoulder replacement surgery to any other type of surgical treatment or to any type of non-surgical treatment. We found no studies comparing reverse total shoulder replacement surgery to any other type of treatment or to any type of replacement. Trial size varied from 16 to 161 participants. Participant mean age ranged from 63 to 81 years. 47% of participants were male. Sixteen trials reported participants with a diagnosis of osteoarthritis and intact rotator cuff tendons. Four trials reported patients with osteoarthritis and a rotator cuff tear or rotator cuff tear arthropathy. All studies were at unclear or high risk of bias for at least two domains, and only one study was free from high risk of bias (included in the main comparison). The most common sources of bias were lack of blinding of participants and assessors, attrition, and major baseline imbalance. Three studies allowed a comparison of conventional stemmed TSR surgery versus stemmed humeral hemiarthroplasty in people with osteoarthritis. At two years, low-quality evidence from two trials (downgraded for bias and imprecision) suggested there may be a small but clinically uncertain improvement in pain and function. On a scale of 0 to 10 (0 is no pain), mean pain was 2.78 points after stemmed humeral hemiarthroplasty and 1.49 points lower (0.1 lower to 2.88 lower) after conventional stemmed TSR. On a scale of 0 to 100 (100 = normal function), the mean function score was 72.8 points after stemmed humeral hemiarthroplasty and 10.57 points higher (2.11 higher to 19.02 higher) after conventional stemmed TSR. There may be no difference in quality of life based on low-quality evidence, downgraded for risk of bias and imprecision. On a scale of 0 to 100 (100 = normal), mean mental quality of life was rated as 57.4 points after stemmed humeral hemiarthroplasty and 1.0 point higher (5.1 lower to 7.1 higher) after conventional stemmed TSR. We are uncertain whether there is any difference in the rate of adverse events or the rate of revision, re-operation, or treatment failure based on very low-quality evidence (downgraded three levels for risk of bias and serious imprecision). The rate of any adverse event following stemmed humeral hemiarthroplasty was 286 per 1000, and following conventional stemmed TSR 143 per 1000, for an absolute difference of 14% fewer events (25% fewer to 21% more). Adverse events included fractures, dislocations, infections, and rotator cuff failure. The rate of revision, re-operation, or treatment failure was 103 per 1000, and following conventional stemmed TSR 77 per 1000, for an absolute difference of 2.6% fewer events (8% fewer to 15% more). Participant-rated global assessment of treatment success was not reported. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Although it is an established procedure, no high-quality randomised trials have been conducted to determine whether shoulder replacement might be more effective than other treatments for osteoarthritis or rotator cuff tear arthropathy of the shoulder. We remain uncertain about which type or technique of shoulder replacement surgery is most effective in different situations. When humeral hemiarthroplasty was compared to TSR surgery for osteoarthritis, low-quality evidence led to uncertainty about whether there is a clinically important benefit for patient-reported pain or function and suggested there may be little or no difference in quality of life. Evidence is insufficient to show whether TSR is associated with greater or less risk of harm than humeral hemiarthroplasty. Available randomised studies did not provide sufficient data to reliably inform conclusions about adverse events and harm. Although reverse TSR is now the most commonly performed type of shoulder replacement, we found no studies comparing reverse TSR to any other type of treatment.

Comparison of transforming growth factor beta expression in healthy and diseased human tendon.

BACKGROUND: Diseased tendons are characterised by fibrotic scar tissue, which adversely affects tendon structure and function and increases the likelihood of re-injury. The mechanisms and expression profiles of fibrosis in diseased tendon is understudied compared to pulmonary and renal tissues, where transforming growth factor (TGF)ß and its associated superfamily are known to be key drivers of fibrosis and modulate extracellular matrix homeostasis. We hypothesised that differential expression of TGFß superfamily members would exist between samples of human rotator cuff tendons with established disease compared to healthy control tendons. METHODS: Healthy and diseased rotator cuff tendons were collected from patients presenting to an orthopaedic referral centre. Diseased tendinopathic (intact) and healthy rotator cuff tendons were collected via ultrasound-guided biopsy and torn tendons were collected during routine surgical debridement. Immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction were used to investigate the protein and gene expression profiles of TGFß superfamily members in these healthy and diseased tendons. RESULTS: TGFß superfamily members were dysregulated in diseased compared to healthy tendons. Specifically, TGFß-1, TGFß receptor (R)1 and TGFß R2 proteins were reduced (p < 0.01) in diseased compared to healthy tendons. At the mRNA level, TGFß R1 was significantly reduced in samples of diseased tendons, whereas TGFß R2 was increased (p < 0.01). BMP-2, BMP-7 and CTGF mRNA remained unchanged with tendon disease. CONCLUSIONS: We propose that downregulation of TGFß pathways in established tendon disease may be a protective response to limit disease-associated fibrosis. The disruption of the TGFß axis with disease suggests associated downstream pathways may be important for maintaining healthy tendon homeostasis. The findings from our study suggest that patients with established tendon disease would be unlikely to benefit from therapeutic TGFß blockade, which has been investigated as a treatment strategy in several animal models. Future studies should investigate the expression profile of fibrotic mediators in earlier stages of tendon disease to improve understanding of the targetable mechanisms underpinning tendon fibrosis.