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Online doctoral programming geared toward working professionals can provide unprecedented flexibility in terms of time and place that affords greater access to a broader student demographic. At the same time, online learning poses its own unique set of challenges and limitations for students with and without disabilities. Universal Design (UD) is a framework built around the idea of proactively identifying and removing barriers to learning in the environment, pedagogical practices, and materials. In this essay, we highlight the necessity and relevance of UD to online doctoral programs and share insights related to its use in our program from faculty and student perspectives.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with a prothrombotic state; leading to multiple sequelae. We sought to detect whether thromboelastography (TEG) parameters would be able to detect thromboembolic events in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Methods: We performed a retrospective multicenter case–control study of the Collaborative Research to Understand the Sequelae of Harm in COVID (CRUSH COVID) registry of 8 tertiary care level hospitals in the United States (US). This registry contains adult patients with COVID-19 hospitalized between March 2020 and September 2020. Results: A total of 277 hospitalized COVID-19 patients were analyzed to determine whether conventional coagulation TEG parameters were associated with venous thromboembolic (VTE) and thrombotic events during hospitalization. A clotting index (CI) >3 was present in 45.8% of the population, consistent with a hypercoagulable state. Eighty-three percent of the patients had clot lysis at 30 min (LY30) = 0, consistent with fibrinolysis shutdown, with a median of 0.1%. We did not find TEG parameters (LY30 area under the receiver operating characteristic [ROC] curve [AUC] = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.44-0.65, P value =.32; alpha angle [α] AUC = 0.58, 95% CI: 0.47-0.69, P value =.17; K time AUC = 0.58, 95% CI: 0.46-0.69, P value =.67; maximum amplitude (MA) AUC = 0.54, 95% CI: 0.44-0.64, P value =.47; reaction time [R time] AUC = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.42-0.65, P value =.70) to be a good discriminator for VTE. We also did not find TEG parameters (LY30 AUC = 0.51, 95% CI: 0.42-0.60, P value =.84; R time AUC = 0.57, 95%CI: 0.48-0.67, P value.07; α AUC = 0.59, 95%CI: 0.51-0.68, P value =.02; K time AUC = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.53-0.70, P value =.07; MA AUC = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.57-0.74, P value <.01) to be a good discriminator for thrombotic events. Conclusions: In this retrospective multicenter cohort study, TEG in COVID-19 hospitalized patients may indicate a hypercoagulable state, however, its use in detecting VTE or thrombotic events is limited in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]