Open AccessGeneral thoracic surgery services across Asia during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic
Author(s) -
Sanghoon Jheon,
Aneez D.B. Ahmed,
F. Fang,
Woohyun Jung,
Ali Zamir Khan,
Jang-Ming Lee,
Jun Nakajima,
Alan D.L. Sihoe,
Punnarerk Thongcharoen,
Masahiro Tsuboi,
Akif Turna
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
asian cardiovascular and thoracic annals/asian cardiovascular and thoracic annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.203
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1816-5370
pISSN - 0218-4923
DOI - 10.1177/0218492320926886
Subject(s) - pandemic , covid-19 , service (business) , medicine , health care , outbreak , prioritization , healthcare system , medical emergency , disease , business , economic growth , virology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , marketing , economics , process management
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 posed an historic challenge to healthcare systems around the world. Besides mounting a massive response to the viral outbreak, healthcare systems needed to consider provision of clinical services to other patients in need. Surgical services for patients with thoracic disease were maintained to different degrees across various regions of Asia, ranging from significant reductions to near-normal service. Key determinants of robust thoracic surgery service provision included: preexisting plans for an epidemic response, aggressive early action to "flatten the curve", ability to dedicate resources separately to COVID-19 and routine clinical services, prioritization of thoracic surgery, and the volume of COVID-19 cases in that region. The lessons learned can apply to other regions during this pandemic, and to the world, in preparation for the next one.