LSU Health COVID-19 Papers Featured in Journal of the Louisiana State Medical Society

September 16, 2021

The current issue of the Journal of the Louisiana State Medical Society includes two papers by LSU Health New Orleans authors. The first, “An Internal Medicine Residency Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Louisiana,” describes the response of LSU Health New Orleans’ Internal Medicine Residency Program in its three teaching hospitals in metro New Orleans. The second, “The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Undergraduate Medical Education Experience at Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans,” describes the impact of COVID-19 on medical education. The issue is available online here. These papers were also published in a Special COVID-19 Edition of the Journal of the Louisiana State Medical Society comprising research articles, all written by LSU Health New Orleans medical experts. The Special Edition is available online here.

LSU Health Internal Medicine residents rotate at three New Orleans metro area teaching hospitals – University Medical Center, Touro Infirmary and Ochsner-Kenner Medical Center. Following the first reported case of COVID-19 in New Orleans on March 9, 2020, a rapid increase in cases occurred at all three of our hospital sites. The initial rise of COVID-19 at UMC occurred during the third week of March 2020. At the peak, all the hospitals in the greater New Orleans area quickly became inundated with patients affected by COVID-19. The goal of this article, written by Drs. Seth Vignes, Brittany Boudreaux, Shane Sanne, Catherine Hebert and Lee Engel, is to share their experience, designed responses to the multitude of issues facing the internal medicine residency program, and the lessons they learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper details peak response models at each facility, communications, as well as patient care comparisons pre-COVID-19, first peak and post-first-peak, COVID-19 vaccinations, as well as resident and intern health and wellness.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected students at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine as it did at many other medical schools around the world. School administrators, faculty, and students had to adjust their teaching, learning, and assessment strategies in a matter of days to weeks to complete training requirements and ensure continuing education. Four classes of students and the incoming matriculating class of August 2020 at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine faced an array of unique and universal challenges. Guidance from the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) shaped the approach taken by course directors, clerkship directors, and faculty within the Offices of Undergraduate Medical Education and Student Affairs to ensure compliance with national recommendations and accreditation standards. The paper, written by Drs. Cathy Lazarus, Hamilton Farris and Robin English, along with medical students Kia Sayers and Nancy Tran, describes LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine’s efforts and the challenges that lie ahead. Its conclusion states, “We will maintain our flexibility as the pandemic evolves and anticipate that our community will continue to work together to ensure excellent medical education is received as our students prepare to become the future physicians for the state of Louisiana.”

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Other papers in the Special Edition include a guest editorial, “The Resilience of our State” by Dr. Fred Lopez; “COVID-19: Epidemiology, Clinical Presentation and Prognosis” by Drs. Fred Lopez and Logan Ledet; “Diagnostic Approach to COVID-19” by Drs. Mohammed Ziada and Victoria Burke; “Prevention and Treatment of SARS-CoV-2: An Update” by Drs. Taras Nebeluk and Meredith Clement; “COVID-19 and Cardiovascular Disease” by Drs. Syed Saad, Murtuza Ali and Neeraj Jain; and “Leadership in the Time of COVID” by Dr. Charles Sanders.

These LSU Health New Orleans faculty physicians and residents have not only cared for patients on the front lines but have also made significant contributions to the body of knowledge about COVID-19.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans (LSU Health New Orleans) educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's health sciences university leader, LSU Health New Orleans includes a School of Medicine with branch campuses in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSU Health New Orleans faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research, the LSU Health New Orleans research enterprise generates jobs and enormous annual economic impact. LSU Health New Orleans faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www.lsuhsc.edu, http://www.twitter.com/LSUHealthNO, or http://www.facebook.com/LSUHSC.