Practice Management News

May has been commemorated as Older Americans Month since 1963, according to the Administration for Community Living.

While recent data have shown no increased risk for COVID-19 through contact lens wear and indicates that the use of contact lenses remains ultimately safe, researchers highlighted the need for altered management including advising patients to reduce or eliminate sleeping in contacts and using telehealth to discuss care.

Approximately one in 10 Americans used telehealth as an alternative to in-person visits to doctor’s offices, urgent care centers and EDs, according to a survey published last year. However, it was not until the COVID-19 pandemic that the uptake of telehealth dramatically changed, an expert told Healio Primary Care.

The Health Care Alliance for Patient Safety is calling on the Federal Trade Commission to increase its enforcement of the federal patient safeguards related to contact lens sales in light of the fact that many optometry practices are not fully operational during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research exploring inhaled nitric oxide’s potential to treat COVID-19 is underway.

A multidisciplinary team developed a process that uses vaporized hydrogen peroxide, or VHP, to disinfect N95 respirators, according to a paper published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected immigrants in the United States, and the disease causing even more difficulty for this population to access quality health care, according to the authors of a JAMA Internal Medicine paper.

Scott Gottlieb, MD, former commissioner of the FDA, expressed doubt that necessary large-scale manufacturing of a COVID-19 vaccine would be available by the fall but was optimistic that inoculations could be available by 2021. Gottlieb discussed the COVID-19 pandemic and the country’s response to the virus at the virtual American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting.

As ophthalmology practice owners consider returning to patient care, dealing with new physical concerns, psychological issues and the ramifications of being out of business for months will provide new challenges as clinics begin to once again open their doors to patients, speakers said at the virtual American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting.

Investigators recently launched the CHASING COVID Cohort study to help physicians and policymakers understand the impact of our public health response to the pandemic on clinical outcomes, and to prepare for future health crises.