COVID-19 Resources

With new variants coming out the woodwork on the regular, an endless stream of research, and changing guidelines, it can be tough to keep up. The COVID-19 resources listed below will help you to quickly find the clinical resources you need, when you need them:

• COVID-19 mitigation strategies
• The latest research
• Information to guide clinical care of patients with COVID-19
• Structured courses
• Treatment guidelines and other resources
• COVID-19 vaccine recommendations

The latest COVID-19 research

Summaries and interpretation of research

Dr Eric Tople’s substack is one of our favourite COVID-19 resources for the latest research on acute and chronic sequelae relating to COVID. You can also check out his podcast for easy listening on the go! Dr Eric Tople is a practising cardiologist, and the executive VP at Scripps Research in San Diego, California. 

Original COVID research

If you have time to sift through the research to find the data that’s most pertinent to your clinical practice, there are many options.

First, there are several journals that offer open access to COVID-19 research papers, discussions, commentary, guidelines, and clinical reports:

• The Lancet
• Nature
• The New England Journal of Medicine

Additional sources of COVID-19 research includes the following:

• LitCOVID-19: Run by the United States National Institute of Health, this site compiles research from PubMed and is updated every day. We like their content tagging system, which makes it easier to filter search results and find research on the exact sub-topics you’re looking for.

COVID-19 resources for clinical care

We’ve got a couple of options for you, depending on your preferences: structured courses and various treatment guidelines.

Structured courses about COVID-19

1. Medmastery has a FREE course on outpatient management of COVID-19 that also provides COVID CME. Examples of topics covered are as follows: 

• How to know if you should initiate treatment for COVID-19 outpatients
• How to manage drug-drug interactions with COVID-19 therapies

They also have downloads available that you can use as study materials or a reference in the clinic:

• Outpatient management handbook
• Treatment checklist
• Therapy selection flowchart

2. The BMJ also offers free courses that provide COVID CME. They cover the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 (e.g. testing, infection control, airway management for intubation, proning in critical care, and clinical pointers for primary care). They also offer courses on topics relating to maintaining our own wellbeing, 

3. The World Health Organization has courses available in multiple languages. Examples of COVID-19 topics covered are as follows:

• Respiratory equipment
• Management of mild, moderate, and severe disease
• First-aid for critically ill patients
• Rehabilitation

COVID-19 treatment guidelines and other clinical resources

1. The BMJ links to WHO clinical guidance on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. They also link to general education on assessment, diagnosis, management, and treatment of the following issues as they relate to COVID-19:

• Long COVID
• Breathing difficulty
• Cognitive dysfunction
• Neuroinflammation
  • Neurological syndromes
    • Encephalitis
    • ADEM (an immune mediated inflammatory demyelinating disorder)
    • ADEM-like presentations in intensive care
    • Paediatric inflammatory multisystem disorder temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS) or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C)
    • Stroke
    • Guillain-Barré syndrome
  • Other neuromuscular syndromes
  • Neurological presentations associated with long COVID
• Orthostatic tachycardia
• Venous thromboembolism after COVID-19
• Pregnancy and COVID-19

2. The World Health Organization has a large collection of COVID-19 resources to help you with clinical management of these patients:

• Very detailed COVID treatment guidelines (186 pages in PDF format!) that covers everything from the acute illness to long Covid
• Living guidelines on medications to prevent COVID-19
• Webinar series

3. The United States CDC has a comprehensive listing of COVID-19 resources relating to clinical care. Here are examples of the topics they cover:

• Clinical presentation
• Testing
• Management and treatment
• Infection control guidance
• Identification and management of long COVID-19

COVID vaccine guidelines

As you know, guidelines on who should receive a vaccine and at what interval varies from country to country, but if you’re looking for general vaccine information, the World Health Organization has some great resources. Topics covered include the following:

• Advice for healthcare workers and administrators
• Technical guidance
• Vaccination

Here are some additional country-specific resources:

• Australian Immunization Handbook
  • Recommendations for vaccine use
  • Variations from vaccine product information
  • Epidemiology, clinical features, and complications of COVID-19
• Canadian Immunisation Guide
  • Vaccines authorised for use in Canada
  • Recommendations for use
  • Efficacy
  • Safety and adverse events
• United Kingdom COVID vaccine information
  • Guidance and protocols
  • Vaccine training course and competency assessment information
  • Consent forms and letter 
• United States CDC
  • Overview
  • Vaccine schedules and recommendations
  • Vaccination and pemivibart
  • Coadministration with other vaccines
  • Patient counselling
  • Contraindications

COVID-19 prevention strategies

If you have an interest in COVID-19 resources that’ll help you reduce transmission in indoor spaces, here are some great options:

1. The  American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)

Want some set-it-and-forget-it ways to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses—like COVID-19—at work and other indoor spaces?

ASHRAE has you covered with evidence-based information that can be applied to our HVAC systems to help all of us—and our patients—get sick less often. Here’s some of what you’ll find on their website:

• Evidence-based tactics that apply to healthcare facilities
• Air filtration and disinfection options

2. United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

They have a nice webinar series (scroll down the page a bit to find it!)  that covers the following:

• Aerosol treatment devices
• Disinfection
  • Application of disinfectants via sprayers and foggers
  • Long-lasting disinfectants
  • Ozone disinfection
  • UV-C devices
• Cleaning and disinfection of PPE

3. World Health Organization

This year they released a technical document outlining updated terminology pertaining to transmission of pathogens (like COVID-19) that can spread through the air. For the short version, you can read the announcement here. Or, check out the entire 52-page document.

Additional COVID-19 resources and reading from LITFL:

1. The future of intensive care, especially after COVID-19 (podcast discussion starts at timestamp 01:10:10)
2. Aerosol-generating procedures
3. COVID-19 vaccination and Guillain-Barré Syndrome (see part 2)
4. Lindsay nails and COVID-19
5. The implications of having COVID-19 infection in the perioperative period