Researchers at Cuba's National Medical Genetics Center: Pioneering Studies on COVID-19.

Three fourths of the 175 staff at Cuba's National Medical Genetics Center (CNGM) are women. And women constitute 90% of the research team working on the Center's largest current project-unlocking the biological secrets of COVID-19 in the Cuban population. They are identifying particularly vulnerable groups and geographies, reviewing therapies applied and long-term sequelae of the disease, and contributing to ongoing vaccine research and trials. Their results are critical to determining effective preventive and treatment strategies as the country moves into the next phases of epidemic control. The national study is the first and only one of its kind in Latin America. Then the first COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in Cuba on March 11, 2020, the Center's role in epidemiological surveillance was activated, based on its experience with the Zika threat in 2015. This involved mobilizing the National Genetics Network anchored in primary healthcare facilities, comprised of 452 genetics counselors, nurses and clinical geneticists, supported by technicians, epidemiologists and family doctors. The Network's role would become key to the ensuing research. As the magnitude of the pandemic became clearer, CNGM investigators approached the Ministry of Public Health and government leaders with a broad-ranging proposal to study biological factors that would help explain differences in vulnerability, symptoms, immune response and severity of the disease, as well as its profile in different Cuban subpopulations. After approval, the studies got underway in June, encompassing Cubans who had been infected through June 11, 2020, and were by now convalescing. The nine main research lines were defined, and principal investigators went to work developing the instruments needed and training personnel across the island on their use. While final results are still being analyzed, CNGM Director Dr Beatriz Marcheco and four lead researchers talked with MEDICC Review about the scope of their work and some of the most intriguing preliminary findings.

A Framework for National Collaboration to Reduce Documentation Burden and Design for Usable and Reusable Data.

A focused effort is needed to capture the utility and usability of the electronic health record for providing usable and reusable data while reducing documentation burden. A collaborative effort of nurse leaders and experts was able to generate national consensus recommendations on documentation elements related to admission history. The process used in this effort is summarized in a framework that can be used by other groups to develop content that reduces documentation burden while maximizing the creation of usable and reusable data.

Leveraging Academic-Clinical Partnerships to Create an Operating Room Nurse Pipeline.

This article describes an academic-clinical partnership program between a school of nursing and an American Nurse Credentialing Center Magnet®- and National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center based on a shared vision and multifaceted for optimal new graduate operating room (OR) recruitment and use of clinical partner resources. The program, now in its 3rd year, has a 100% retention rate among the cohorts. Implementing a multifaceted OR partnership program based on nursing theory is a strategy for workforce development to increase retention of new graduate OR nurses.

What Biden's Presidency Will Mean for Cancer.

As vice president, Joe Biden was the cancer advocate-in-chief. As president, he has a different public health crisis to deal with-COVID-19-but given Biden's passion for cancer research, many expect he will build on the previous Moonshot initiative with another push to accelerate the pace of progress in cancer control.

The Need for an Ecologic Understanding of Radiology Practice.

OBJECTIVE. Many models have been used to understand radiology practice, including economics, engineering, and information technology. Each has advantages, but each also has drawbacks, failing to illuminate important aspects of radiologists' work. A model that offers additional insights is ecology. CONCLUSION. By looking at radiology practice through the ecologic concept of symbiosis, radiologists can gain new understanding and appreciation of aspects of their work that can render it more fruitful and sustainable.

World Federation of Orthodontists: An orthodontic umbrella organization coordinating activities and pooling resources.

The idea of a global orthodontic organization, the World Federation of Orthodontists (WFO), made up of national and regional orthodontic organizations, was realized in 1995 in San Francisco at the 4th International Orthodontic Congress that was held in conjunction with the 95th annual American Association of Orthodontists meeting. This umbrella organization strives to promote quality orthodontic care, practiced and delivered by orthodontic specialists in all parts of the world. In addition, it supports its member organizations with governing principles that promote appropriate membership criteria, qualified individual leadership participation, and long-term stability of the organization over time. In response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic, the WFO has responded proactively and plans to augment its digital resources even further in the near future. This article describes the formation of the organization, the idea that germinated through the first three international orthodontic congresses, its workflow and membership criteria, the accountability and commitment it has toward its affiliates and individual members, and its plans for future years to come.

Theory-Driven Evaluation of a Multisite Nursing Professional Practice Model.

Evaluation of the professional practice model is an expectation in Magnet-designated facilities. Few evaluations of practice models are theory driven. A multisite, theory-driven model evaluation was conducted that included input from a variety of sources resulting in a comprehensive revision of the model.

In defense of the Unified Health System in the context of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: To discuss the political and structural conditions for establishing the Unified Health System (UHS - Sistema Único de Saúde, SUS) in coping with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. METHODS: Theoretical-reflection study. RESULTS: At the first moment named "The global and the local in facing the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic" is presented the health crisis that took place worldwide and the government actions to combat COVID-19. A second moment named "Between dismantling actions and resistance, the UHS is the best way to face the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic", reflects on the neoliberal attacks on the health system and how it resists, remaining the main pandemic response strategy. CONCLUSION: The strengthening of democracy and the defense of the UHS are the way out of the crisis. It is believed that this reflection generates - in everyone who deals with caretaking - the political action, the ethical attitude, the desire for valorization and the spirit of struggle in defense of the UHS and human life.

Goals of care and COVID-19: A GOOD framework for dealing with uncertainty.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, more patients will require palliative and end-of-life care. In order to ensure goal-concordant-care when possible, clinicians should initiate goals-of-care conversations among our most vulnerable patients and, ideally, among all patients. However, many non-palliative care clinicians face deep uncertainty in planning, conducting, and evaluating such interactions. We believe that specialists within palliative care are aptly positioned to address such uncertainties, and in this article offer a relevant update to a concise framework for clinicians to plan, conduct, and evaluate goals-of-care conversations: the GOOD framework. Once familiar with this framework, palliative care clinicians may use it to educate their non-palliative care colleagues about a timely and critical component of care, now and beyond the COVID-19 era.