In a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology, Said Ibrahim, MD, MPH, MBA, professor of population health sciences, and colleagues from Weill Cornell Medicine and Hospital for Special Surgery researched how rheumatologists prescribed hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and chloroquine (CQ) to manage COVID-19. Rheumatologists are one of the most common prescribers of HCQ/CQ, so online surveys distributed to rheumatologists between April 8 and April 27, 2020 helped the researchers understand how patients were being affected by medication shortages. While only a small percentage were prescribing HCQ/CQ to treat COVID-19, 71 percent of all rheumatologists reported that their patients were directly affected by HCQ/CQ shortages. The researchers suggest that the medication shortages experienced by autoimmune disease patients should play a role in future decision making, especially given poor efficacy data for HCQ/CQ in COVID-19.
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