Silver linings: a qualitative study of desirable changes to cancer care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: Public health emergencies and crises such as the current COVID-19 pandemic can accelerate innovation and place renewed focus on the value of health interventions. Capturing important lessons learnt, both positive and negative, is vital. We aimed to document the perceived positive changes (silver linings) in cancer care that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify challenges that may limit their long-term adoption. METHODS: This study employed a qualitative design. Semi-structured interviews (n = 20) were conducted with key opinion leaders from 14 countries. The participants were predominantly members of the International COVID-19 and Cancer Taskforce, who convened in March 2020 to address delivery of cancer care in the context of the pandemic. The Framework Method was employed to analyse the positive changes of the pandemic with corresponding challenges to their maintenance post-pandemic. RESULTS: Ten themes of positive changes were identified which included: value in cancer care, digital communication, convenience, inclusivity and cooperation, decentralisation of cancer care, acceleration of policy change, human interactions, hygiene practices, health awareness and promotion and systems improvement. Impediments to the scale-up of these positive changes included resource disparities and variation in legal frameworks across regions. Barriers were largely attributed to behaviours and attitudes of stakeholders. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to important value-based innovations and changes for better cancer care across different health systems. The challenges to maintaining/implementing these changes vary by setting. Efforts are needed to implement improved elements of care that evolved during the pandemic.

Identifying Silver Linings During the Pandemic Through Natural Language Processing.

COVID-19 has presented an unprecedented challenge to human welfare. Indeed, we have witnessed people experiencing a rise of depression, acute stress disorder, and worsening levels of subclinical psychological distress. Finding ways to support individuals' mental health has been particularly difficult during this pandemic. An opportunity for intervention to protect individuals' health & well-being is to identify the existing sources of consolation and hope that have helped people persevere through the early days of the pandemic. In this paper, we identified positive aspects, or "silver linings," that people experienced during the COVID-19 crisis using computational natural language processing methods and qualitative thematic content analysis. These silver linings revealed sources of strength that included finding a sense of community, closeness, gratitude, and a belief that the pandemic may spur positive social change. People's abilities to engage in benefit-finding and leverage protective factors can be bolstered and reinforced by public health policy to improve society's resilience to the distress of this pandemic and potential future health crises.

Challenges and Silver Linings of COVID-19 in Ethiopia -Short Review.

Difficult situations bring not only challenges but also fruitful opportunities. The pandemic of COVID-19 by itself and the related governmental or individual level measures have their own challenges and opportunities to the community, which even might be directly or indirectly related to the control and prevention of the pandemic. The silver linings of the pandemic of COVID-19 should be uncovered to encourage the community not only to focus on the black side of the disease but also to enjoy the opportunities. This can contribute to facilitate the control of the disease and avoid the related panics. In this review, we have discussed the challenges of COVID-19 in Ethiopia in terms of health, economy, and social life, and the silver linings in terms of research opportunities, technological transformation, reading culture, and family discussion. The literatures used in this review were published and unpublished articles, reports, and working papers from Google Scholar, PubMed, MedRxiv, BioRxiv, and official websites of national and international organizations.