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Less than one-third of COVID-19 clinical trials are led by women, which is half the proportion observed in non-COVID-19 trials, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London, University of St Andrews, Brigham and Women s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
The study suggests that gender disparities during the pandemic may signify not only a lack of women s leadership in international clinical trials and new research projects, but also may expose the imbalances in women s access to research activities and funding during health emergencies.
The results of the study are being publicised to mark International Women s Day on Monday 8 March. This year s theme is Choose To Challenge which aims to encourage people to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality.
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More than three quarters (78%) of hospitals surveyed between June and August 2020 reported that their paediatric cancer care had been affected by the pandemic.
Almost half (43%) made fewer new cancer diagnoses than expected, while around one third (34%) noted a rise in the number of patients abandoning treatment.
Nearly one in ten (7%) closed their paediatric cancer units completely at some stage during the pandemic.
Hospitals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) were disproportionately affected, with unavailability of chemotherapy, treatment abandonment, and disrupted radiotherapy among issues more frequently reported.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had major impacts on childhood cancer care worldwide, according to a survey of more than 300 clinicians from 200 hospitals worldwide published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal.
Credit: Yokohama National University
Researchers in Japan have developed the first wearable devices to precisely monitor jaundice, a yellowing of the skin caused by elevated bilirubin levels in the blood that can cause severe medical conditions in newborns. Jaundice can be treated easily by irradiating the infant with blue light that breaks bilirubin down to be excreted through urine. The treatment itself, however, can disrupt bonding time, cause dehydration and increase the risks of allergic diseases. Neonatal jaundice is one of the leading causes of death and brain damage in infants in low- and middle-income countries.
To address the tricky balance of administering the precise amount of blue light needed to counteract the exact levels of bilirubin, researchers have developed the first wearable sensor for newborns that is capable of continuously measuring bilirubin. In addition to bilirubin detection, the device can simultaneously detect pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation in
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Being older, overweight and having low haemoglobin levels (fewer red blood cells) could increase a patient s risk of developing debilitating nerve damage following chemotherapy, a research team led by UNSW Sydney has revealed.
The researchers aimed to identify pre-treatment clinical and blood-based risk factors in patients who developed chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) - nerve damage in peripheral body parts, like hands or feet, as a result of chemotherapy.
The study, published in
JAMA Network Open recently, examined patients - mostly women - who received paclitaxel or oxaliplatin chemotherapy treatment, which are common treatments for breast, colorectal and gynaecological cancers.
Over the next month, 209 U.S. counties in the United States will need to implement crisis workforce strategies to deal with potentially dangerous shortfalls of intensive care unit doctors, according to a new analysis published today. The analysis draws on data from a just launched county-level hospital workforce estimator, one that takes into account the strain on staffing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.