From the Editor's Desk: Systems Science 2010-2020, and Post-COVID-19.

COVID-19 Health Technology Governance, Epistemic Competence, and the Future of Knowledge in an Uncertain World.

After the initial emergency responses deployed to control the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the first half of 2020, we should now start thinking about long-term strategies and concepts for pandemic and disaster governance such as resilience. In this context, COVID-19 health care and education are especially important because they are essential public goods that determine what kind of a society we live in, during the pandemic and afterward. So for, the focus has been a tactical efficiency perspective that prioritized instrumental, logistical, or pragmatic aspects in planetary health and university education, with much less attention paid to social justice, history of inequity, and power asymmetries that affect the pandemic impacts in society. For a resilient COVID-19 response, we need to address not only medical, technical, and logistical challenges, but also the social disparities that are inherited from the prepandemic world that are negatively affecting the current pandemic outcomes.

In May 2019, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services warned that "around one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction." In September 2019, Naomi Klein, an astute writer on environmental change, described the interconnected social and ecological breakdowns on the planet in a new book. Ecological crises noted by these and other scholars speak well to the rise of planetary health as a new scholarship. Loss of biodiversity has manifold negative impacts on health, for example, rise of zoonotic infections and changes in healthy microbiome. But reducing our ecological footprints is not enough. We ought to change mindsets, the narrow science, and technology governance regimes that value nature and other life forms instrumentally by their usefulness to us. I describe three new, broader and critically informed, frames on governance for planetary health. First, I explain why we ought to acknowledge animal sentience, for example, as recognized in Article 13 of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. I describe how political determinants of health, power, and agency operate at multiple sociological and planetary loci, not only among human beings but also at human and nonhuman animal interfaces. Second, planetary health calls for a shift toward ecological and political determinants beyond a narrow anthropocentric view, while resisting the entrenched dogma of exponential growth with finite planetary natural resources. Third, for critically informed governance of emerging technologies in planetary health (e.g., glycomics, artificial intelligence, health care robots), I refer to a question highlighted recently (Frodeman, 2019): "When Plato (more exactly, Juvenal) asked who guards the guardians, he was questioning whether any group can be trusted to look past its own interests for the common good." Hence, it is time we broaden the question "Who will guard the guardians?" beyond the scientific community, to actors in science policy as well. Policy questions cannot be limited to "which social issues emerge from a new technology?" but ought to include, "who should be framing science and technology policy, and why?" Youth leaders of the global climate movement such as Greta Thunberg and others are now rightly asking these epistemological questions that might contribute toward a new social contract on health for all sentient beings on planet Earth. While ecological changes accelerate and a new space industry is emerging, governance for planetary health will continue to be at the epicenter of systems thinking, responsible innovation and science policy in the 21st century.

This expert review offers an analysis of the global governance of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic is not only a health crisis but also a crisis of global governance. For example, the nation states in dealing with the crises of the pandemic have turned inwards, toward native and national solutions, and therefore away from the much-needed global cooperation to respond to the pandemic. This is an important concern for systems medicine and integrative biology in both normative and instrumental sense. Moreover, if we are to "pandemic-proof" the planet and the life science innovation ecosystem, new ways of understanding global governance are called for. This article examines the ways in which national governments have reacted to the crises triggered and embodied by the COVID-19 pandemic, surfaces the different approaches and conflicts between scientific experts and policy makers, and reveals the failure of science and politics. I analyze the uneven and disjointed way Western democratic governments have responded to the crisis and the way unchecked normative values and ideas have influenced the pandemic policy and prevented effective measures to contain the pandemic. Finally, the complex relationships between politics, knowledge, science, and governments are explored and clarified, and the way the COVID-19 crisis highlighted the long-standing tensions between technocracy and democracy. In conclusion, it is time to think critically and reflexively for all knowledge actors in systems science and innovate both planetary health and its global governance.

L’imagerie cerebrale a permis des progres considerables dans le domaine de la maladie d’Alzheimer (MA). Des criteres ont recemment ete proposes pour diagnostiquer la maladie a un stade plus precoce en s’appuyant sur des biomarqueurs d’imagerie. D’autre part la confrontation de multiples methodes d’imagerie permet d’evaluer les liens entre les differentes alterations qu’elles revelent afin de mieux comprendre les mecanismes de la maladie. Les objectifs principaux de cette these etaient d’une part de contribuer au developpement de biomarqueurs plus sensibles aux stades precoces de la MA, et d’autre part d’evaluer les liens entre depots amyloides, deficits metaboliques et atrophie cerebrale, en s’appuyant sur des techniques innovantes. Dans un premier temps, nous avons developpe une sequence IRM de haute resolution ciblee sur l’hippocampe ainsi qu’un protocole de delimitation des sous-champs hippocampiques que nous avons valides. Nous avons ainsi pu montrer que l’atrophie du sous-champ CA1 predominait et etait plus sensible que la mesure du volume de l’hippocampe entier pour distinguer des patients a un stade pre-dementiel de la MA. Au contraire, le vieillissement normal affectait preferentiellement un autre sous-champ : le subiculum. Dans un second temps, grâce a une approche multimodale, nous avons souligne les discordances dans la topographie des lesions caracteristiques de la MA, suggerant l’implication de differents mecanismes sous-jacents. De plus, les resultats indiquaient qu’atrophie et hypometabolisme ne sont pas correles aux depots amyloides chez les patients MA, indiquant l’absence de lien direct entre ces processus a ce stade avance de la maladie

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is impacting on the entire planet, field notes from resource-limited settings are increasingly relevant, both instrumentally and normatively, due to codependency of world populations in the struggle against the pandemic. Yemen is an apt and timely example to illustrate the social and political determinants of planetary health and the ways in which they impact on health care and dignity of people in times of crisis as well as during elective medical care. Importantly, many local communities have deep knowledge of various plant resources that can be evaluated with guidance of the omics systems science. The planetary society would be well poised to build resilience against future pandemics and ecological crises by harnessing local and global expertise in plant omics.

OMICS: A Journal of Integrative BiologyVol. 24, No. 5 EditorialsCOVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019): Opportunities and Challenges for Digital Health and the Internet of Medical Things in ChinaBiaoyang Lin and ShengJun WuBiaoyang LinAddress correspondence to: Biaoyang Lin, PhD, Department of Urology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98195, USA E-mail Address: biaoylin@gmail.comZhejiang-California International Nanosystems Institute (ZCNI) Proprium Research Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.Department of Urology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, USA.Search for more papers by this author and ShengJun WuDepartment of Clinical Laboratories, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:7 May 2020https://doi.org/10.1089/omi.2020.0047AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View article"COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019): Opportunities and Challenges for Digital Health and the Internet of Medical Things in China." OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, 24(5), pp. 231–232FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byEmerging technologies for COVID (ET-CoV) detection and diagnosis: Recent advancements, applications, challenges, and future perspectivesBiomedical Signal Processing and Control, Vol. 83Integration of cloud computing with the Internet of things for the treatment and management of the COVID-19 pandemic15 November 2022 | Information Systems and e-Business Management, Vol. 26A novel e-healthcare diagnosing system for COVID-19 via whale optimization algorithm24 September 2022 | Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 6Call for Papers: COVID-19 Systems Biology, Multi-Omics Integration, and Digital Technologies in Ecology, Health, and Society Vural Özdemir7 September 2022 | OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, Vol. 26, No. 9From Personalized Medicine to Population Health: A Survey of mHealth Sensing TechniquesIEEE Internet of Things Journal, Vol. 9, No. 17The role of contemporary digital tools and technologies in COVID‐19 crisis: An exploratory analysis6 October 2021 | Expert Systems, Vol. 39, No. 6Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Challenges and Opportunities10 September 2020 | Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, Vol. 16, No. 2Anthropomorphic Robotic Eyes: Structural Design and Non-Verbal Communication Effectiveness15 April 2022 | Sensors, Vol. 22, No. 8Digital Transformation in Personalized Medicine with Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Medical Things Biaoyang Lin and Shengjun Wu7 February 2022 | OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, Vol. 26, No. 2A Review About the Main Technologies to Fight COVID-1915 April 2022Identifying and addressing digital health risks associated with emergency pandemic response: Problem identification, scoping review, and directions toward evidence-based evaluationInternational Journal of Medical Informatics, Vol. 157Unlocking the Public Perception of COVID-19 Vaccination Process on Social MediaToward Combatting COVID-19: A Risk Assessment SystemIEEE Internet of Things Journal, Vol. 8, No. 21An online COVID-19 self-assessment framework supported by IoMT technology6 August 2021 | Journal of Intelligent Systems, Vol. 30, No. 1A Security Management Framework for Big Data in Smart HealthcareBig Data Research, Vol. 25Connected Medical Kiosks to Counter COVID-19: Needs, Architecture & Design GuidelinesThe perspectives of biomarker-based electrochemical immunosensors, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Medical Things toward COVID-19 diagnosis and managementMaterials Today Chemistry, Vol. 20Internet of Things (IoT) Enabled Architecture for Social Distancing During Pandemic15 April 2021 | Frontiers in Communications and Networks, Vol. 2A Comprehensive Review of Applications of Internet of Things for Covid-19 PandemicIOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, Vol. 1055, No. 1Robotics and Drone-Based Solution for the Impact of COVID-19 Worldwide Using AI and IoT16 February 2021Digital Transformation and Emerging Technologies for COVID-19 Pandemic: Social, Global, and Industry Perspectives20 February 2021Telemedicine maybe an effective solution for management of chronic disease during the COVID-19 epidemic29 September 2021 | Primary Health Care Research & Development, Vol. 22Uma análise sobre o desenvolvimento de tecnologias digitais em saúde para o enfrentamento da COVID-19 no Brasil e no mundo1 January 2021 | Cadernos de Saúde Pública, Vol. 37, No. 3Enabled IoT Applications for Covid-191 May 2021Swarm Intelligence based Hierarchical Routing Protocols Study in WSNsCOVID-19 Digital Health Innovation Policy: A Portal to Alternative Futures in the Making Mustafa Bayram, Simon Springer, Colin K. Garvey, and Vural Özdemir3 August 2020 | OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, Vol. 24, No. 8Digital Technologies-Enabled Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 in the Post-COVID-19 Era: Lessons Learnt from a Pandemic3 July 2020 | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 17, No. 13Adoption of Digital Technologies in Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review of Early Scientific Literature6 November 2020 | Journal of Medical Internet Research, Vol. 22, No. 11 Volume 24Issue 5May 2020 InformationCopyright 2020, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishersTo cite this article:Biaoyang Lin and ShengJun Wu.COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019): Opportunities and Challenges for Digital Health and the Internet of Medical Things in China.OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology.May 2020.231-232.http://doi.org/10.1089/omi.2020.0047Published in Volume: 24 Issue 5: May 7, 2020Online Ahead of Print:April 20, 2020PDF download

Cardiac Surgery-Enhanced Recovery Programs Modified for COVID-19: Key Steps to Preserve Resources, Manage Caseload Backlog, and Improve Patient Outcomes

BackgroundThe massive outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Daegu city and Gyeongsangbuk-do, Republic of Korea (ROK), caused the exponential increase in new cases exceeding 5000 within 6 weeks. Therefore, the community treatment center (CTC) with a digital health care monitoring system based on the smartphone application and personal health record platform (PHR) was implemented. Thus, we report our experience in one of the CTCs to investigate the role of CTC and the feasibility of the digital health care monitoring system in the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsThe Gyeongbuk-Daegu 2 CTC was set up at the private residential facility. Admission criteria were 1) patients < 65 years with COVID-19, 2) patients without underlying medical comorbidities, and 3) COVID-19 disease severity of mild class. Admitted patients were placed under monitoring of vital signs and symptoms. Clinical information was collected using the smartphone application or telephone communication. Collected information was displayed on the PHR platform in a real-time fashion for close monitoring.ResultsFrom Mar 3, 2020, to Mar 26, 2020, there was a total of 290 patients admitted to the facility. Males were 104 (35.9%). The median age was 37 years. The median time between the COVID-19 diagnosis and admission was 7 days. Five patients were identified and were transferred to the designed COVID-19 treatment hospital for their urgent medical needs. The smartphone application usage to report vital signs and symptoms was noted in 96% of the patients. There were no deaths of the patients.ConclusionsOur results suggest that implementation of the CTC using a commercial residence facility and digital health care technology may offer valuable solutions to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Virtual healthcare services and digital health technologies deployed during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in South Africa: a systematic review

COVID-19 is overshadowing society across the world and it will redefine many aspects of how we live and work in the future. In a crisis, people are rightly looking for solutions from their leaders and experts and their response and actions will define them for years to come. COVID-19 may also be such a defining moment for clinical pharmacology in terms of its role in drug development and therapy. Though most drug development takes years from discovery to approval, for the COVID-19 pandemic, drug development is on a fundamentally different timeline.

The digital determinants of health have recently attracted attention in the medical and public health literature, but the environmental aspects of these determinants have rarely been considered. This Perspectives article calls for applying a planetary health lens to the digital determinants of health, with a focus on the impacts of novel generative AI technologies on the natural world. The argument is founded on the principle that human and planetary health are intertwined and that digital technologies such as generative AI affect the health of both humans and the other living things in ecosystems. The article discusses proposals of how generative AI tools can contribute to action on the climate, loss of biodiversity and pollution crises but also highlights how the expansion of generative AI infrastructure and operation has exacerbated the problems of e-waste, greenhouse gas emissions and major burdens on energy and water resources. It is argued that for progress to be made in improving human and planetary health, those working in health promotion and other public health domains must acknowledge that human and planetary health are interdependent, so that we can refer to the ‘digital determinants of human and planetary health’. The article highlights this interdependence and the importance of fighting for multispecies justice and the rights of nature to promote the mutual flourishing of humans and the natural world. Actions are proposed that can be taken at the organization and community level to make visible and counter the impacts of generative AI on human and planetary health.

SARS-CoV-2 routes of transmission and recommendations for preventing acquisition: joint British Infection Association (BIA), Healthcare Infection Society (HIS), Infection Prevention Society (IPS) and Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) guidance

The challenging of HIV care 1 year after of coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: results from a Brazilian cohort.

Appointment characteristics in an allergy/immunology practice in the immediate aftermath of COVID-19 restrictions