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Research, Methods, Statistics

Sensible Medicine—Balancing Intervention and Inaction During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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To identify the key insights or developments described in this article

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JAMA

Published Online: October 15, 2020

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Article Information and Disclosures

Christopher W. Seymour, MD, MSc^1,2;

Erin K. McCreary, PharmD³;

Jacob Stegenga, PhD⁴

Author Affiliations

¹Clinical Research, Investigation, and Systems Modeling of Acute illness Center, Departments of Critical Care and Emergency Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
²Associate Editor, JAMA
³Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
⁴Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England

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More than 38 million people worldwide have been infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus 2, creating intense pressure on clinicians to offer state-of-the-art, life-saving treatment to patients.¹ The conundrum is that few effective treatments are available, and among those treatments tested in clinical trials, even fewer have demonstrated benefit compared with no treatment. Treating patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is challenging, and clinicians encounter harrowing emergencies in the intensive care unit where, early during the pandemic, 1 in 4 critically ill patients with severe COVID-19 died.²

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Article Information

Corresponding Author: Christopher W. Seymour, MD, MSc, University of Pittsburgh, Keystone Building, 3520 Fifth Ave, Ste 100, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 (seymourcw@upmc.edu).

Published Online: October 15, 2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.20271

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Seymour reported being supported in part by grant R35GM119519 from the National Institutes of Health; and receiving personal fees from Beckman Coulter Inc and Edwards Lifesciences Inc. No other disclosures were reported.

Additional Contributions: We acknowledge Scott Berry, PhD, and Roger J. Lewis, MD, PhD, for their input on Strategy 5.

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