Observational studyEmergency radiology2021
The effect of COVID-19 on emergency department imaging: what can we learn?
Observational study in Emergency radiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Navigating the CT wave: multicentric chest imaging trends before, during, and after COVID-19 Pandemic.European radiology · 2026Article
- Trends in CT examination utilization in the emergency department during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC medical imaging · 2024Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Thyroid Cancer Surgery.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2024Article
- Acute care pathway assessed through performance indicators during the COVID-19 pandemic in OECD countries (2020-2021): a scoping review.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Applying Natural Language Processing to Textual Data From Clinical Data Warehouses: Systematic Review.JMIR medical informatics · 2023Review
- Impact of Predictive Text Clinical Decision Support on Imaging Order Entry in the Emergency Department.Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR · 2023Article
- Have Chest Imaging Habits Changed in the Emergency Department after the Pandemic?Tomography (Ann Arbor, Mich.) · 2023Article
- The Impact of Data Management on the Achievable Dose and Efficiency of Computed Tomography During the COVID-19 Era: A Facility-Based Ambispective Study.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2022Article
- The impact of COVID-19 on radiological findings in patients accessing the emergency department: a multicentric study.Polish journal of radiology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on emergency department (ED) imaging.
methodsThis retrospective study included all ED visits at a four-hospital academic health system in two matched 5-week periods. Demographic information, COVID-19 status, and disposition were reviewed. Type of imaging, acquisition time, and radiology reports were analyzed. Significance level was set at p < 0.05.
resultsA 43.2% decrease in ED visits and 12% reduction in overall ED imaging occurred during the pandemic period. Mean age was unchanged, but a shift in gender and racial characteristics was observed (p < 0.001). In the pandemic period, COVID-19 ED patients were older (61.8 ± 16.9 years, p < 0.001) and more likely to be Black (64.2%; p < 0.001) than non-COVID-19 patients. Imaging per ED encounter increased to 2.4 ± 2.8 exams from 1.7 ± 1.1 (p < 0.001). Radiography increased (57.2% vs. 52.4%) as a fraction of total ED imaging, while computed tomography (23.4% vs. 27.2%) and ultrasound (8.5% vs. 9.6%) decreased (pre-pandemic vs. pandemic). COVID-19 ED patients underwent CT and US at a lower rate (11.5% and 5.4%) than non-COVID-19 patients (25.4% and 9.1%). The proportion of imaging study reports concluding "no disease" or "no acute disease" decreased from 56.7 to 40.6% (p < 0.001).
conclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant reduction in ED visits, a shift in patient demographics, and a significant decrease in imaging volume. Additional impact included a significant increase in the proportion of positive imaging studies.
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Registered trials
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