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Coronavirus (COVID-19)

What Other Countries Can Learn From Italy During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Educational Objective
To understand what other countries can learn from Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic

1 Credit CME

JAMA Internal Medicine

Published Online: April 7, 2020

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Article Information and Disclosures

Stefania Boccia, MSc, PhD^1,2;

Walter Ricciardi, MD, MPH, MSc^1,2;

John P. A. Ioannidis, MD, DSc^3,4

Author Affiliations

¹Section of Hygiene, University Department of Health Sciences and Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
²Department of Woman and Child Health and Public Health, Public Health Area, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy
³Stanford Prevention Research Center, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California
⁴Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford, California

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In the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Italy has been hit very hard,¹ with 110 574 documented cases and 13 155 documented deaths related to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection as of April 1, 2020. The number of cases and deaths cannot be explained simply because of the epidemic starting in Italy earlier compared with other countries besides China. It is important to understand why death rates were so high in Italy to learn how to best prepare and how to plan for optimal actions in other countries. Some contributing factors may be immutable (eg, age structure of the population), but even these need to be laid out carefully in preparedness assessments. Some other contributing factors are potentially modifiable.

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Article Information

Corresponding Author: John P. A. Ioannidis, MD, DSc, Stanford Prevention Research Center, 1265 Welch Rd, Medical School Office Bldg, Room X306, Stanford CA, 94305 (jioannid@stanford.edu).

Published Online: April 7, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.1447

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

References

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AMA CME Accreditation Information

Credit Designation Statement: The American Medical Association designates this Enduring Material activity for a maximum of 1.00  AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the evaluation component, enables the participant to earn up to:

1.00 Medical Knowledge MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine's (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program;;
1.00 Self-Assessment points in the American Board of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery’s (ABOHNS) Continuing Certification program;
1.00 MOC points in the American Board of Pediatrics’ (ABP) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program;
1.00 Lifelong Learning points in the American Board of Pathology’s (ABPath) Continuing Certification program; and
1.00 CME points in the American Board of Surgery’s (ABS) Continuing Certification program

It is the CME activity provider's responsibility to submit participant completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting MOC credit.