Medical & Clinical Reviews

The Journal Medical and Clinical Reviews has been publishing peer-reviewed quality content in the form of original scientific reviews, expert commentaries, opinions of case reports, clinical practice experiences as well as systematic and observational Reviews on an open access platform since the past five years at a regular quarterly frequency. In addition the Journal also published special issues and International conference proceedings highlighting latest advances and emerging challenges in medicinal and clinical sciences that are relevant to various socio-economic, physiological and different age groups.

Medical and Clinical Reviews journal has been designed to provide a comprehensive scientific perspective of the latest academic and research activities relevant to clinical medicine. The journal provides a wide coverage of the topics that are relevant to current as well as future practitioners. The present issue of the journal focuses on prevention and treatment strategies of SARCCoV- 19 that are of significance to physicians and pharmacists; the role of healthcare telemarketers in communicating with customers during pandemic situation; psychiatry and mental health benefits of South African medical scheme members as well as multidisciplinary perspective on pandemic situation with focus on health care sector.

Ever since its detection in Wuhan city of China, the novel corona virus strain has spread rapidly across the globe while the number of infected people is on the rise. Currently, prevention of disease transmission is the only mode of restricting the viral spread. Saleem et al. [1] have emphasized that pharmacists have the position of authority in a society with ability to interact with people and they can educate people regarding hand hygiene, social distancing and other infection control measures. Pharmacists also constitute the front line force in combating COVID-19 pandemic. Pharmacists are aware of the various treatment options available such as plasma therapy from recovered patients as well as other preventive measures. The authors have suggested that among health care professionals, pharmacists are suitable for preparation of plasma and different treatment approaches. This report is significant in terms of the magnitude of infection transmission rate that has been observed worldwide and the limitations of available health care workers. Active participation of the pharmacists in rendering medical services and adopting prevention strategies would increase the ratio of medical health care worker to susceptible patient ratio and they can cover a wide number of people thus effectively saving them from infection or even helping them in getting right treatment.

Health care business operations depend on external communications which can get hampered in a pandemic situation. During COVID-19, an unprecedented challenge emerged to engage patients while maintaining legal compliance. Gipson [2] has conveyed that in such context health care companies need to educate the employees on the relevant laws and review third party and client contractual requirements. This study is significant in maintaining productive and well-coordinated work environment while ensuring legal compliance and effective communications. Willie [3] have conducted an assessment of health care benefits to the medical service providers treating patients with disabilities based on a cross section study design and comprising of statutory return data, medical scheme claim data for psychiatric and mental health within the purview of chronic disease conditions. The study concluded that poorly designed benefits lead to inadequate access to benefits by beneficiaries with disabilities and ultimately the marketing forces and poor health care quality result in discrimination. The study emphasized on availing more training posts by the Government for psychiatrists.

In the context of COVID pandemic, Verma and Verma [4] have stressed on practical solutions based on medicine, vaccination, precautions, psychology, information technology, etc. The authors have discussed the opinions, measures, directions and innovative aspects for dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic as well as improvement of efficiency and reliability of existing healthcare systems. This study suggests approaches based on interdisciplinary areas to recover from the pandemic situation rapidly and effectively.

The articles presented in this issue have immense relevance and significance in development of suitable strategies and approaches for dealing with COVID 19 pandemic situation and furnish various means to recover effectively. I take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all the contributing authors, editors and reviewers for successfully bringing out this issue while adhering to publication timeliness. I am also eagerly awaiting for the compilation of the upcoming issue and also welcome our prospective editors and reviewers on board in our collective endeavour to report the latest insights in medical and clinical science.

References

1. Saleem S, Islam A, Zafar MZ (2020) Role of Physicians & Pharmacists in Prevention and Treating SARC-CoV-19-An Overview. Med Clin Rev.
2. Gipson P (2020) How Healthcare Telemarketers Can Effectively Communicate with Customers and Maintain Compliance during a Pandemic. Med Clin Rev.
3. Willie MM (2020) The Utilisation of Psychiatry and Other Mental Health Benefits by Members of Medical Schemes, South Africa. Med Clin Rev.
4. Verma VK, Verma K (2020) COVID-19: Healthcare Sector Focused MultiDisciplinary Opinions on Global Pandemic. Med Clin Rev.