A Perspective from Los Angeles of COVID‐19 effect and impact on cardiac surgery

Abstract

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID‐19) captured worldwide attention as the virus spread from initial detection as a pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China in December 2019 to the declaration of a pandemic by the WHO only 3 months later. This paper describes the impact of COVID‐19 on cardiac surgery services in the greater Los Angeles area. Discussion includes public health response to the pandemic, how local hospitals reacted to the expected surge in patients with COVID, the establishment of telemedicine services, and the projected future impact on California healthcare as a result of the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Cardiac Surgery in Australia During the COVID-19 Global Pandemic

“…In this issue of Heart, Lung and Circulation , McNamara and colleagues [ 1 ] report a 21% reduction in the cardiac surgical caseload from a single centre during the first Australian wave of the COVID-19 pandemic from March to June 2020. Globally, elective cardiac surgery ground to a halt and as the pandemic rapidly escalated, centres in Australia and New Zealand were able to benefit from the collective experiences of those in the United Kingdom (UK) [ 2 ], Canada [ 3 ], Italy [ 4 ] and the United States [ 5 , 6 ]. A year on, we now have the benefit of not only understanding the immediate effect of pandemic surge but also the implications of elective surgery cancellations in the context of revising the definition of cardiac surgical urgency.…”

“…Concurrently, the West Coast of the USA had a 62% decline in emergency department presentations, a 35% decline in total hospitalisations and complete cessation of surgery that was not considered an emergency procedure. The estimated impact of these changes equated to a predicted loss of almost US$15 billion by the end of 2020 in California alone [ 5 ].…”

Studying the Experience of Electrical and Computer Engineering Students in a Face-to-Face Electronics Laboratory Course during COVID-19 Pandemic

“…In fact, ten of the first twenty confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States occurred in California [9] . California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a State of Emergency on March 4' 2020 [10,11] . On March 17'2020 all California State University (CSU) campuses began immediate transition to virtual mode of instruction to better implement the mass gathering guidelines established by the California Department of Health.…”