Infectious Diseases

Host: Joshua Sharfstein, MD

Host: Stephanie Desmon

Guest: Megan M. Tschudy, M.D.

Although COVID-19 does not appear to infect children at the same rate as adults, there are significant indirect impacts on kids from the pandemic. Baltimore pediatrician Dr. Megan Tschudy talks with Stephanie Desmon about the “profound disruption” of the pandemic and its impacts on vaccinations, regular check-ups, and other aspects of children’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Published May 12, 2020

Host: Joshua Sharfstein, MD

Guest: Panagis Galiatsatos, M.D., M.H.S.

Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos spends 12-16 hour days attending to COVID-19 patients in the ICU at Johns Hopkins Hospital. When he’s not at the hospital, he’s on duty in the community working with faith-based organizations, schools, and housing units to help leaders protect their community members from getting sick. Dr. Galiatsatos talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about these dual roles of being on both the last and first lines of defense—caring for patients in the ICU and helping to prevent them from getting there in the first place.

Published May 11, 2020

Host: Joshua Sharfstein, MD

Host: Sara Bennett, PhD

Guest: Timothy J. Roberton, DrPH

The global health community has worked for years to lower rates of maternal and child mortality in low- and middle-income countries. But while the world focuses on the number of deaths from COVID-19, estimates of indirect mortality due to disruptions in health systems cannot be ignored.

Tim Roberton, an assistant scientist in international health, talks with guest host Sara Bennett, a professor in international health, about a paper he co-authored that estimates there could be a 45 percent increase in child mortality and a 38 percent increase in maternal mortality in severe scenarios where care is disrupted due to COVID-19. One way to head off these numbers is to categorize care by prioritizing only emergency care that cannot be delivered in any other way.

Published May 7, 2020

Host: Joshua Sharfstein, MD

Guest: Arturo Casadevall, MD, PhD

Dr. Arturo Casadevall—head of the convalescent plasma research project at Johns Hopkins—talks through the WHO’s recent statement that there’s no evidence of COVID-19 infection leading to short- or long-term immunity. Dr. Casadevall and Dr. Josh Sharfstein also discuss how COVID-19 is not like HIV or pneumonia and what we currently know about new strains of the novel coronavirus.

Published May 6, 2020

Host: Joshua Sharfstein, MD

Guest: Megan Hosey Mastalerz, PhD

The intensive care unit can be stressful for all patients, but those with COVID-19 face unique challenges when it comes to mental and cognitive health. Clinical psychologist Dr. Megan Hosey of the Johns Hopkins Hospital ICU talks with Stephanie Desmon about ICU delirium, COVID-19 stigma, and what longer term prognosis could look like for patients inside and after the ICU.

Published May 6, 2020

Host: Mario R. Nacinovich, Jr., MSc

Guest: Randy Young, MD

Here to give us a firsthand look into how ICUs across the country are confronting the COVID-19 pandemic head-on is Dr. Randy Young, a critical care doctor who’s treating COVID-19 patients in the mid-Atlantic area. Dr. Young joins Mario Nacinovich to discuss what he has seen during the pandemic and how the ICU is responding to both expected and unexpected challenges.

Published May 13, 2020

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: April Taylor, MS, MHA, CPPS, CPHQ

Every organization has disaster preparedness plans for one-day and one-week events like fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes, but how do those plans come into play during a pandemic like COVID-19 when there isn’t an end date in sight? Joining Dr. Matt Birnholz to discuss this and more is April Taylor, Senior Director of Improvement and Project Management at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Published May 13, 2020

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: Mark R. Cullen, MD

Here to share what we might soon learn about the COVID-19 pandemic is Dr. Mark Cullen, Scientific Committee Chair for the academic arm of the COVID-19 research database, which is a secure repository of HIPAA compliant, de-identified, and limited patient-level data sets.

Published May 13, 2020

Host: Mario R. Nacinovich, Jr., MSc

Guest: Mark R. Cullen, MD

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, endemic challenges surrounded fragmented data sets and long perspective clinical trials. But now, recently developed data sets are available to public health and policy researchers to not only overcome that challenge, but also to combat this global pandemic. Dr. Mark Cullen, Scientific Committee Chair for the academic arm of the COVID-19 research database at Stanford University School of Medicine, joins Mario Nacinovich to explain.

Published May 13, 2020

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

In the absence of a vaccine, researchers have reported the potential need for long-term social distancing measures through 2021. Tune in as Dr. Matt Birnholz breaks down these findings and what the potential impacts might be if these warnings are ignored.

Published May 11, 2020