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Background The COVID-19 pandemic provoked sweeping changes in practice to care for pregnant and birthing people, and highlighted inequities that threaten to exacerbate racial disparities in maternal outcomes. Moreover, social distancing measures have made it harder for pregnant people to access support. Assessment Prioritizing widespread access to COVID-19 testing and vaccination for pregnant people is critical to ensuring they receive safe and equitable care. Transparency in reporting outcomes including race and pregnancy status is key. Expanding telemedicine services to provide mental healthcare and labor support is necessary to maintain access to critical social networks. Additionally, resources must be allocated to pregnant people with complex social needs and are the most vulnerable. Conclusion Policy centered on maintaining equity and agency in the care of pregnant people is imperative now and should continue as the standard moving forward to narrow racial disparities in maternal health outcomes., Author(s): Ayotomiwa Ojo [sup.1] , Adam L. Beckman [sup.1] , Amber Weiseth [sup.2] , Neel Shah [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.38142.3c, 000000041936754X, Harvard Medical School, , 25 Shattuck [...]

Physicians, nurses, and other health care providers initiated the #GetMePPE movement on Twitter to spread awareness of the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Dwindling supplies, such as face masks, gowns and goggles, and inadequate production to meet increasing demand have placed health care workers and patients at risk. The momentum of the #GetMePPE Twitter hashtag resulted in the creation of a petition to urge public officials to address the PPE shortage through increased funding and production. Simultaneously, the GetUsPPE.org website was launched through the collaboration of physicians and software engineers to develop a digital platform for the donation, request, and distribution of multi-modal sources of PPE. GetUsPPE.org and #GetMePPE were merged in an attempt to combine public engagement and advocacy on social media with the coordination of PPE donation and distribution. Within 10 days, over 1800 hospitals and PPE suppliers were registered in a database that enabled the rapid coordination and distribution of scarce and in-demand materials. One month after its launch, the organization had distributed hundreds of thousands of PPE items and had built a database of over 6000 PPE requesters. The call for action on social media and the rapid development of this digital tool created a productive channel for the public to contribute to the health care response to COVID-19 in meaningful ways. #GetMePPE and GetUsPPE.org were able to mobilize individuals and organizations outside of the health care system to address the unmet needs of the medical community. The success of GetUsPPE.org demonstrates the potential of digital tools as a platform for larger health care institutions to rapidly address urgent issues in health care. In this paper, we outline this process and discuss key factors determining success.

In the article, the authors present their study on the differences in telehealth use by patients and primary care practices, as well as their relationship to out-of-office blood pressure (BP) monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics include how the transition to telehealth services and virtual care affected key preventive services like BP monitoring and the use of logistic regression models in the study.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is magnifying preexisting health disparities whereby patients with limited English proficiency receive lower-quality health care and experience poorer outcomes. To address these realities, language interventions to date have focused on interpreter services and linguistically tailored health information. But these limited solutions fail to target a more upstream, overlooked, and modifiable factor: a patient's access to improving their English proficiency and health literacy. We present recommendations for addressing language as a social determinant of health by improving access to English as a Second Language programs. This article outlines steps that health systems and policy makers can take to more directly treat upstream causes of language disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the author discusses the hidden costs and disadvantages of home-based care like gaps in health care support and quality and failure to engage clinicians meaningfully. Also cited are the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in home-based care, the patient safety issues related to care homes, and the Older Americans Act as one of the funding source for caregivers.