After identifying inappropriate results or interpretations in a published paper, there is no easy mechanism to inform the research community about those issues.

Difficult to efficiently inform the research community about inappropriate results/findings

There are many repetitions and contradictions in the disseminated information.

Repetition and contradiction in collaborative research

This vast amount of information imposes a cognitive overload on the researchers, which makes it very difficult to figure out the novelty of a new study.

Cognitive overload and determining the novelty of a new study

When a review paper is published, all its content stays constant and will not be updated until another review paper completely covers it and makes it obsolete.

Published papers are static and don't get updated dynamically

In a collaboration between researchers from different disciplines A and B, most of the time, it is difficult for experts in A to study papers about B.

Difficulties of multidisciplinary research collaboration 

- The preprint servers began to play a much larger role since the pandemic when the research community is ever more in need for sharing findings and results. 
- The above highlights certain concerns and criticisms that preprint servers received even before the pandemic, one of which is the absence of "peer-preview" process.
- If the lack of peer-review process were to result in unsound science, it is far more consequential for the COVID-19 research for the research directly touches on a matter of life and death. 
-There is an inevitable risk associated with non-peer reviewed papers such as the ones in preprint servers for being not peer-reviewed.
-Because fast dissemination is critical, but the traditional publication takes time, more researchers are utilizing the preprint servers, which, in some cases, advertising their papers via social media –(i.e.) Twitter.

The increased role of preprint servers in COVID-19 research

Dissemination of fast and rapidly reviewed papers makes researchers self-judge and screen most of the studies on their own, which is extremely time-consuming.

Time-consuming to self-judge many rapidly released papers

About 20% of the journals are still for subscribers only, which makes OS (Open Science) difficult.



Marketing and subscription fees of journals

Career trajectories are tied to publishing in prominent journals.

Personal ambitions and carrier incentives

Flaws in the published journal papers

There is a barrier between researchers and the public audience when it comes to communicating findings and research. 

Difficulty Informing the Public

Researchers face a number of challenges while using the current tools.
- Inaccuracy: The research tools do not return accurate results, and have to be verified by a medical worker.
- Inability to adopt: The researchers are unwilling to spend time on learning a new tool. 
- User friendly: The tools that exist are not very easy to use. 

Challenges with current research tools

References for Barriers to COVID-19  Research

Repetitive, false and contradictory content is being generated, which is difficult to manage and wastes time and energy.


Repetitions and contradictions topic sprint findings

Fighting against a pandemic spread requires large-scale collaboration between researchers from multiple disciplines

Finding a Consensus (problems in interdisciplinary work) topic sprint findings

As many scientists pivot to research about COVID-19, the number of related studies being published continuously grow. 

Some critical questions to look deeper into would be:
- What problems are scientists having with staying informed about recent studies?
- How are scientists coping with these problems? 
- What troubles are they facing with organizing all of the knowledge? 
- Are they organizing the knowledge in ways that are useful or possibly counterproductive

Scientists are drowning in COVID-19 papers (cognitive overload) topic sprint findings

in tweets and blogposts, COVID-19 researchers have expressed concerns about the lack of an efficient mechanism to communicate their criticisms.


Input getting lost (difficulty of communicating with the scientific community) topic sprint findings

tweets about literature or literature (Science COVID Info)

 communicating with public and politicians (Science COVID Info)

tools and methods that are helping (Science COVID Info)

- Time-consuming to self-judge many rapidly released papers
- Difficult to efficiently inform the research community about inappropriate results/findings
- Repetition and contradiction
- Cognitive overload and determining the novelty of a new study
- Published papers are static and don't get updated dynamically
- Difficult for multidisciplinary research collaboration 
- The increased role of preprint servers in COVID-19 research
- Marketing and subscription fees of journals
- Personal ambitions and carrier incentives
- Even the papers published journals are not completely flawless when the time is the essence.
- Difficulty informing the public


University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

COVID-19 refers to the newly discovered infectious disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus. This new virus and disease were first discovered during the outbreak in Wuhan, China, that reportedly began in December 2019. Before this discovery of the new virus, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission announced that patients were sick with 'viral pneumonia' from an unknown cause.

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)

1. The pandemic has caused about 30% decrease in GDP in the USA (Azoulay, P., & Jones, B. (2020))
2. About 80% of on-site researching was canceled because of social distancing(Wigginton 2020)
3. Scientists and researchers are frustrated with reviewing literature during the pandemic.
4. Wildlife in Africa is threatened as a result of consequential financial problems of lower tourism spending and donor funding (Lindsey 2020).
5. Economical and financial problems may improve exposure to and consumption of wild animals, and increase future pandemic risks (Di Marco 2020)
6. Food Security. "COVID-19-related hunger may
well kill more people than direct infection."(Food2020 Nature)
7. Psychosocial health and obesity epidemic as a side effect of lockdown during pandemic is also apprised(Clemmensen 2020 Nature).

Importance of technical solutions to fight against COVID-19

Many existing technologies and practices have been improved and optimized for larger scale operations, including:

- Contact Tracing
- Telehealth (Telemedicine)
- Big Data
- Barriers to Collaborative COVID-19 research

Focuses of Health Information Technology and COVID-19

1. [MODULE 1: From Bench to Bedside, Section: 'GRAPHIC SUMMARY' (as of March 19, 2020)](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gjUuqTLi7xqMVzgWeYAFulmaIiKzhYY89PVOJJVvlNo/edit#heading=h.gtn0tdsnrc43)
2. [MEDICAL STUDENT COVID-19 CURRICULUM](https://docs.google.com/document/d/13JfRRw1GEIKz4JCde8WcQBCHnu-7nn11P_z0dHov1eA/preview)


COVID-19 Graphical Summary

An unprecedented amount of knowledge has been generated in the past two months in the form of journal papers, blog posts, and other forms.
Journal reviewers have significantly expedited the review process, e.g., the New England Journal of Medicine posted a COVID-19 paper within 48 hours of submission. Many researchers disseminate their papers in the form of preprints or posts on the new Wu-han Clan Slack channel before journal publication.

Multidisciplinary Collaborative COVID-19 Research

Biomedical engineering tools, problems and solutions related to COVID-19

Biomedical engineering for COVID-19

The virology of COVID-19: How viruses infect host cells in the body

Virology of COVID-19

The use and testing of drugs and medicine to treat COVID-19

Pharmacology in COVID-19

Health authorities in China contacted the World Health Organization (WHO) that there was a cluster of viral pneumonia cases of unknown cause in Wuhan, Hubei. By January 30th, the WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). At the time there were 7,818 cases confirmed globally, affecting 19 countries in five WHO regions.

Epidemiology of COVID-19

Current Barriers Related to COVID-19 Collaborative Research

How human functions and mechanisms play a role in transmitting and fighting against COVID-19

Human physiology of COVID-19

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2). The outbreak was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The World Health Organization declared the pandemic on March 11th

COVID-19 pandemic

- Focuses of Effects of Human Nutrition in Fighting COVID-19
- References for Effects of Human Nutrition in Fighting COVID-19 by Journal/Source

Effects of Human Nutrition in Fighting COVID-19

"Long Covid", or "Long-Haul Covid", is a term that describes the experience of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients with long-term and persistent symptomology.

Long Covid

Azoulay, P., & Jones, B. (2020). Beat COVID-19 through innovation.

Beat COVID-19 through innovation

Wigginton, N. S., Cunningham, R. M., Katz, R. H., Lidstrom, M. E., Moler, K. A., Wirtz, D., & Zuber, M. T. (2020). Moving academic research forward during COVID-19. Science, 368(6496), 1190-1192.

Moving academic research
forward during COVID-19

Lindsey, P., Allan, J., Brehony, P., Dickman, A., Robson, A., Begg, C., ... & Flyman, M. (2020). Conserving Africa’s wildlife and wildlands through the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1-11.

Conserving Africa’s wildlife and wildlands through
the COVID-19 crisis and beyond

Di Marco, M., Baker, M. L., Daszak, P., De Barro, P., Eskew, E. A., Godde, C. M., ... & Karesh, W. B. (2020). Opinion: Sustainable development must account for pandemic risk. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(8), 3888-3892.

Opinion: Sustainable development must account for pandemic risk

Food in a time of COVID-19. Nat. Plants 6, 429 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-0682-7

Food in a time of COVID-19

Clemmensen, C., Petersen, M. B., & Sørensen, T. I. (2020). Will the COVID-19 pandemic worsen the obesity epidemic?. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 1-2.

Will the COVID-19 pandemic worsen
the obesity epidemic?

1. Science Rapid PREreview (outbreaksci.prereview.org) (schwab2020science)
2. Pubpeer journal club pubpeer.com (Langham 2019)
3. 27 active Twitter-Based Journal Clubs (Stoneman2020)
4. retractionwatch.com. 30 papers about COVID-19 was retracted being 1410 cited totally.cost: US$425 000 per article (dinis 2020)

Alternative technologies to help fight against the pandemic

Contact tracing is used by health departments to prevent the spread of infectious disease. In general, contact tracing involves identifying people who have an infectious disease (cases) and people who they came in contact with (contacts) and working with them to interrupt disease spread. This includes asking people to isolate and their contacts to quarantine at home voluntarily. Contacts are also asked to monitor their symptoms daily, e.g., temperature checks, self-assessments based on common symptoms, and to get tested if any symptoms develop during their isolation.

What is Contact Tracing?

Telehealth are health-related services and information through electronic communication technologies to help patients with or people influenced by COVID-19. It allows long-distance patient and clinician care, education, and monitoring. Telemedicine is sometimes used as a synonym, or is used in a more limited sense to describe remote clinical services, such as diagnosis and monitoring. 

Telehealth (telemedicine) and COVID-19

Many countries are using social media as a way to guide the general public through this pandemic. These forums (such as WhatsApp in Singapore) can help the government provide easily accessible updates and guidelines in each stage of the virus as it impacts society. 

Social Media and COVID-19

This can be done via contact tracing as people adapt to the "new normal".  This allows  clinical personnel to recognize infection hotspots and notify personnel of of possible new cases. This method is used to slow down and the pandemic and plauteau the curve.

Digital Monitoring

Big data is a field that analyze data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software or manpower. In the pandemic of Covid-19, many countries have turned to this field to minimize the impact of the pandemic by analyzing and evaluating the possibility of certain people to be infected. Hospitals and care facilities can then be alerted beforehand, and the likelihood of an undetected outbreak is reduced.

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