Societal Impact of Pain thematic network – from European recommendations to national implementations

Issue

Pain puts a serious burden on individuals and society. The Societal Impact of Pain (SIP) aims at improving pain care policies by gathering a broad coalition of multi-disciplinary organisations.

Description of the problem

Uncontrolled pain can decrease people's quality of life and has a serious impact on individuals and society. The SIP Thematic Network focuses on improving policy-making via the creation of a network of stakeholders by sharing best practices and available data to draft recommendations with the goal to call for a European Framework addressing the societal impact of pain. SIP has been selected in 2018 as a Thematic Network as part of the EU Health Policy Platform and produced a Joint Statement that focuses on four key areas: (1) Indicators, (2) Research, (3) Education, and (4) Employment. The Joint Statement has been used as a basis for projects and initiatives at national level, aligned with the four key priorities.

Results

Nine SIP national platforms have been established in Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain under the guidance of the European SIP platform. Each platform has identified one or more key areas of the Joint Statement to take concrete actions for implementation. For example, SIP Belgium released a national SIP Joint Statement with the goal to improve the (re)integration of pain patients in the workforce and society.

Lessons

The selection of SIP as a Thematic Network on the EU Health Policy Platform provided opportunities to identify the key areas for impactful pain policy work and led to concrete actions for implementation on national level. More at www.sip-platform.eu

Key messages

Continuation of the dialogue on the EU Health Policy platform is important to improve existing policies and to increase collaboration amongst all key stakeholders. Structured implementation of policy recommendations on national level is important in order to improve pain care.

Response of a comprehensive cancer center to the COVID-19 pandemic: the experience of the Fondazione IRCCS-Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano

BACKGROUND

The rapid spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is affecting many countries. While healthcare systems need to cope with the need to treat a large number of people with different degrees of respiratory failure, actions to preserve aliquots of the healthcare system to guarantee treatment to patients are mandatory.

METHODS

In order to protect the Fondazione IRCCS-Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano from the spread of COVID-19, a number of to-hospital and within-hospital filters were applied. Among others, a triage process to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) positivity in patients with cancer was developed consisting of high-resolution low-dose computed tomography (CT) scan followed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) detection of SARS-CoV-2 in nose-throat swabs whenever CT was suggestive of lung infection. To serve symptomatic patients who were already admitted to the hospital or in need of hospitalization while waiting for RT-PCR laboratory confirmation of infection, a COVID-19 surveillance zone was set up.

RESULTS

A total of 301 patients were screened between March 6 and April 3, 2020. Of these, 47 were hospitalized, 53 needed a differential diagnosis to continue with their cancer treatment, and 201 were about to undergo surgery. RT-PCR was positive in 13 of 40 hospitalized patients (32%), 14 of 52 day hospital patients (27%), and 6 of 201 surgical patients (3%).

CONCLUSION

Applying filters to protect our comprehensive cancer center from COVID-19 spread contributed to guaranteeing cancer care during the COVID-19 crisis in Milan. A surveillance area and surgical triage allowed us to protect the hospital from as many as 33 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Response of a comprehensive cancer center to the COVID-19 pandemic: the experience of the Fondazione IRCCS-Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano

BACKGROUND

The rapid spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is affecting many countries. While healthcare systems need to cope with the need to treat a large number of people with different degrees of respiratory failure, actions to preserve aliquots of the healthcare system to guarantee treatment to patients are mandatory.

METHODS

In order to protect the Fondazione IRCCS-Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano from the spread of COVID-19, a number of to-hospital and within-hospital filters were applied. Among others, a triage process to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) positivity in patients with cancer was developed consisting of high-resolution low-dose computed tomography (CT) scan followed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) detection of SARS-CoV-2 in nose-throat swabs whenever CT was suggestive of lung infection. To serve symptomatic patients who were already admitted to the hospital or in need of hospitalization while waiting for RT-PCR laboratory confirmation of infection, a COVID-19 surveillance zone was set up.

RESULTS

A total of 301 patients were screened between March 6 and April 3, 2020. Of these, 47 were hospitalized, 53 needed a differential diagnosis to continue with their cancer treatment, and 201 were about to undergo surgery. RT-PCR was positive in 13 of 40 hospitalized patients (32%), 14 of 52 day hospital patients (27%), and 6 of 201 surgical patients (3%).

CONCLUSION

Applying filters to protect our comprehensive cancer center from COVID-19 spread contributed to guaranteeing cancer care during the COVID-19 crisis in Milan. A surveillance area and surgical triage allowed us to protect the hospital from as many as 33 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2.