New Live Video Webcast Series Aims to Unite, Educate Ophthalmologists
In a move to provide ophthalmologists and eye care professionals a platform to share timely information during the COVID-19 outbreak, Bryn Mawr Communications (BMC) this week hosted its first live video webcast via Zoom and Facebook Live.
The webcast, which was made through the company’s long-standing podcast “Ophthalmology Off The Grid,” allowed viewers to submit questions and make comments in real time. During the webcast, cohost Drs. Gary Wörtz and Blake Williamson spoke with three ophthalmologists who shared their stories of contracting and combatting the novel coronavirus.
The webcast was part special series devoted to the COVID-19 outbreak, and was the first in a series of Ophthalmology Off-the-Grid episodes scheduled to be broadcast live in the coming weeks.
To subscribe to Ophthalmology Off the Grid, click here.
In another Ophthalmology Off the Grid COVID-19 webcast, cohosts Dr. Wörtz and Dr. Williamson discussed COVID-19 transmission with Karl Stonecipher, MD, and Julie Schallhorn, MD, MS. Drs. Stonecipher and Schallhorn shared tactics for protecting staff, family members, and physicians from contracting the virus, and urge listeners to remind their friends and family that this is not a drill.
Among the tips provided by Dr. Stonecipher:
Pray, meditate, laugh, do yoga, get sleep.
Practice social distancing in an isolated environment.
Drink hot liquids such as coffee, tea, or hot water with salt to eliminate COVID-19 from the mouth. (The virus can live in our mouths for up to 3 days.)
Wash surfaces that you come into contact with; the virus can live on metallic surfaces and plastic for up to 9 days.
Regularly disinfect handrails, door handles, and grocery store shopping carts.
Don’t smoke or vape, as these practices compromise your lungs.
If you suffer from asthma, are immunocompromised, or an older patient, please stay home.
Wash your hands with soap and water frequently.
Eat well; Dr. Stonecipher recommends enjoying cooked red kidney beans and sprouted mung beans for their antiviral effects, and supplementing with Vitamins C and D and zinc.
Exercise regularly to sweat out the virus.
Among the tips provided by Dr Schallhorn:
Donate masks to ICUs and screening centers.
Ophthalmologists – What to do with your N95 masks after you see a patient who tests COVID-19 positive:
Ideal: have a second mask
OR: Wear a surgical mask (or face shield, if available) overtop of N95
Afterwards, disinfect.
At end of day, discard surgical mask; people are also using hand-sanitizer on top of mask
Utilize telemedicine; switch as many patients as possible to telemedicine.
Zoom
Educational center: conserve––once one person tests positive, it knocks everyone else out
Informed that they may be redeployed to another area of medicine.
State of the UCSF hospital:
Lockdown; no one can enter hospital unless they are an employee who works in patient care. Patients can only come in if they’re being admitted. No visitors are permitted in hospital or outpatient clinics (labor & delivery is a little different).
It feels as though people are preparing; it feels like the calm before the storm.
The full episode can be found here.
BMC also hosted a live video webcast of its New Retina Radio podcast on Friday. The webcast, “How Retina Doctors Are Altering Their Treatments During the COVID-19 Crisis, and How They Can Anticipate What’s Next,” was hosted by John W. Kitchens, MD. Panelists included Rishi Singh, MD, of the Cole Eye Institute, Cleveland Clinic; Nancy Holekamp, MD, of Pepose Vision Institute, Chesterfield, Missouri; and Sunir Garg, MD, of Wills Eye Hospital and Mid Atlantic Retina in Philadelphia.
Friday’s webcast was the first live episode of New Retina Radio as part of BMC’s special video broadcast series covering the COVID-19 outbreak. Previous episodes can be found on Eyetube’s podcast channel.