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Miller School of Medicine Magazine Publishes Special Issue on Response to COVID-19

The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has published the Spring 2020 issue of its University of Miami Medicine magazine as an online-only special report devoted to the response by the Miller School and UHealth – the University of Miami Health System to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The issue, which includes additional content, can be found on the magazine’s website.

“This special report highlights the groundbreaking efforts of our researchers to control the spread of the virus from the perspectives of both basic science and public health,” said Henri R. Ford, M.D., M.H.A., dean and chief academic officer of the Miller School. “Our scientists are at the forefront of attempts to expand our testing capabilities and to find a cure or a vaccine to stop this terrible disease.”

The front cover of the magazine features an illustration of the familiar coronavirus molecular ball, with the spikes that protrude from it joined by human figures — a symbolic representation of the worldwide collaborative effort to defeat COVID-19. On the magazine website, the object revolves in three dimensions across the landing page.

The articles in the special report focus on the research being conducted to discover and develop tests, vaccines and antibody treatments, the extensive preparations at the University of Miami’s hospital and clinics to prepare for a large influx of COVID-19 patients, the rapid shift to online learning for medical and graduate students, and a variety of community outreach initiatives related to the pandemic.

Additional articles offer personal accounts by Miller School alumni on the front lines at hospitals and medical institutions across the country, medical student volunteers who are staffing hotlines and gathering PPE for clinicians, and generous donors who are contributing medical supplies, meals and financial support. The special report also offers perspectives on COVID-19-related ethical considerations, mental health issues and contact tracing sequences of infection.

“The vivid images from New York and other cities that have been epicenters of the ravages caused by COVID-19 remind us of the inestimable importance of our amazing health care providers, who selflessly put their lives at risk to save others,” Dean Ford said. “They also remind us of the critical role of academic health centers such as ours, not only in treating these patients, but also in training the next generation of physicians and in accelerating the discovery of rapid diagnostic tests and therapeutic interventions to combat this vexing virus.”

Other content in the issue reports on the Miller School’s leadership in treating cancer, clinical neurology, pediatric genetics, drug discovery, cardiovascular disease, the fight against human trafficking, and reinventing medical education.

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