The COVID-19 pandemic has been a mass-disabling event that has led to long-term consequences for patients, health care providers and California’s health care system.
With potentially one in five COVID-19 patients affected by Long COVID — also known as Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection (PASC) — it is urgent for health care providers to understand the best ways of providing effective and timely screening for patients with post-COVID symptoms, managing symptoms and making specialty referrals.
“In California alone, there may be two million Long COVID patients, and it’s likely that the impact from this condition may increase already existing health inequities,” explains University of California Health’s Vice President and Chief Clinical Strategy Officer Anne Foster, M.D.
To meet this need and improve access to care for all Californians, University of California Health has created a new video education series that brings together the knowledge and learnings from 12 academic health professionals across the UC system, including faculty and clinicians from UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego and UCSF. Delivered online via video, the content is available in individual video lectures or as a no-cost Continuing Medical Education (CME) course.
The modules include an overview of PASC, as well as information on the evaluation of the primary care patient with PASC/Long COVID. Specialty areas included in the modules are:
- Cardiology
- Emergency medicine
- Health disparities
- Neurology
- Pediatrics
- Preventive and lifestyle/integrative medicine,
- Psychiatry/behavioral health
- Pulmonology
- Rheumatology
“By educating, equipping and empowering more providers in the battle against the very real impact of Long COVID/PASC, we are helping expand access to care for this condition,” says Dr. Foster.
Learn more
The Long COVID / PASC Education page includes more information about the education modules, links to the individual videos and CME course registration, and UC research on PASC and COVID-19. For more information, contact uchlongcovid@ucop.edu.