Having covered 43 hospitals across 11 states this month, the AIIMS Delhi tele-consultation guidance programme for state doctors on COVID clinical management would reach out to ICU doctors at smaller healthcare facilities in the coming weeks, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

To strengthen the government’s efforts to reduce COVID mortality, the AIIMS Delhi had started the ‘e-ICU’ video consultation for state doctors on COVID clinical management earlier this month.

In a statement, the Health ministry said four sessions have been held till date covering 43 institutions across 11 states. These include ten institutions in Mumbai, three in Goa, three in Delhi, three in Gujarat and two in Telangana, the statement said. The video consultation program in the coming weeks would cover ICU doctors from smaller healthcare facilities across the country, it said.

Each of these sessions conducted through video conference span over 1.5 to 2 hours. The discussions have covered the entire range of issues related to management of COVID-19 patients, the Health ministry said.

“Some of the important issues that have been stressed upon are the need for rational use of ‘Investigational Therapies’ like Remdesevir, convalescent plasma and Tocilizumab. The treating teams have discussed current indications and possible harm due to their indiscriminate use and the need to limit social-media pressure based prescriptions,” it said.

The ministry said the use of proning, high flow oxygen, non-invasive ventilation and ventilator settings for advanced disease have also been a common discussion point. “The role of various testing strategies in diagnosing COVID-19 has also been an important topic of shared learning. Issues such as the need for repeat testing, admission and discharge criteria, management of post discharge symptoms, and return to work have been addressed,” it added.

Some of the other common concerns have been the methods of communication with patients, screening of health-care workers, managing new-onset diabetes, uncommon presentations such as stroke, diarrhoea and myocardial infarction etc, it said.

“The team from AIIMS, New Delhi was able to act as a bridge for new knowledge from one group to the other at each VC, apart from advising from its own experience and the extensive literature reviews done by the domain experts,” the statement said.

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