News and views

Difficult conversations with the seriously ill “We will have to talk about dying during COVID-19 but the challenge for us is how to do this with confidence and empathy and have these conversations with openness, compassion and dignity.”...

What we know so far Diabetes (together with hypertension and ischaemic heart disease) is one of the conditions that is notably associated with poorer outcomes in individuals with COVID-19. This was initially highlighted in research from China and corroborated with further data from Italy. ...

Retention of essential heart failure services Heart failure teams are in demand due to their transferable skills, but there are significant risks with the redeployment of staff and reduction of services designed to monitor and maintain patients with life threatening conditions. Such patients cannot be left without vital support....

Managing COVID-19 in General Practice A free on-line course from St George’s University of London, designed for front-line clinicians, healthcare workers and professionals who are dealing with the large volume of patients in the current COVID-19 pandemic within primary care, is available....

New American Thoracic Society Guidance An American Thoracic Society-led international task force has released a guidance document to help clinicians manage COVID-19 patients in the face of a worldwide pandemic and “minimal empirical evidence to guide treatment”. The new guidance ‘COVID-19 interim guidance on management pending empirical evidence is published as an open access document on the Society’s website: thoracic.org....

Cancer-associated thrombosis COVID-19 may predispose to both venous and arterial thromboembolism due to excessive inflammation, hypoxia, immobilisation and diffuse intravascular coagulation. Many patients receiving antithrombotic therapy for thrombotic disease may develop COVID-19, which can have implications for choice and dosing of antithrombotic therapy including direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs)....

ESC Guidance on diagnosis and management of heart disease during COVID-19 The novel coronavirus not only causes viral pneumonia but also has major implications for the cardiovascular system....

COVID-19: almost everything you need to know ‘Life in the fast lane’ (litfl.com), an Australian/New Zealand medical website, provides materials written by physicians and other HCPs. The current review https://litfl.com/coronavirus/ looks at all aspects of the coronavirus pandemic including assessment and management, from an Australia and New Zealand critical care perspective. It provides an excellent series of Adult Emergency Medicine Radiology Topics each month. These self-guided educational slides were first published on EMGuideWire.com and are peer reviewed....

With sadness, we report the recent deaths of two major figures in the world of cardiology, Professors Lionel Opie and Desmond Julian. We pass on our sincere condolences to their families and relatives....

The popular annual autumn meeting of the British Society for Heart Failure (BSH) boasted a line-up of internationally recognised authorities in heart failure. Held in London on 28th–29th November 2019, the meeting’s focus was on improving quality and reducing inequality. Drs Sanjay S Bhandari and Daniel CS Chan report its highlights....