COVID-19 resources roundup

We’ve created a roundup of official guidance and information, tools and helpful resources on COVID-19 for healthcare professionals.

Compiled by the Library team at the RSM.

Statistics

COVID-19: track coronavirus cases. Public Health England
Dashboard showing reported cases of coronavirus in the UK, including new cases, cases by upper tier local authority in England and number of deaths.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Cases and Deaths by Country, Territory, or Conveyance. Worldometers.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease pandemic - Statistics & Facts. Statista
An overview of cases by country, infection rates, developments and public opinion.

COVID-19 Overview. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Extensive resources and latest updates in Europe and worldwide.

Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE). Johns Hopkins University.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) situation reports. World Health Organization(WHO)
The latest worldwide situation updates and statistical data regarding the COVID-19 outbreak including a specific situation update for the WHO European Region.

Guidelines and evidence summaries

Coronavirus (COVID-19) action plan. GOV.UK
Policy paper

COVID-19: guidance for health professionals. GOV.UK
Guidance for health professionals from the UK Government on the assessment and management of suspected cases. Includes guidance for first responders, initial clinical management, primary care, Ambulance Trusts and infection prevention and control.

Coronavirus guidance for clinicians and NHS managers. NHS England and NHS Improvement

NICE rapid COVID-19 guidelines. NICE
Covers care for patients receiving critical care, kidney dialysis and systemic anticancer treatments.

COVID-19 rapid guideline: dialysis service delivery. NICE.
NICE Rapid evidence reviews are underway and will look at whether some medicines may increase the length of severity of COVID-19 illness; the first will look at ibuprofen and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors.

NICE also provide free fast track advice for companies developing diagnostics or therapeutics for COVID-19. Contact the NICE Scientific Advice team for further information.

Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS) – Coronavirus (COVID 19). NICE
Diagnosis and management patient scenarios aimed at healthcare professionals working in primary and first contact care in the UK.

WHO Country and Technical Guidance – Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). World Health Organization (WHO)
Arranged by topic and selectively by publication date.

BMJ Best Practice: COVID-19. BMJ
Step-by-step guidance on diagnosis and treatment.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). UpToDate
Evidence updates covering virology, epidemiology, clinical features, evaluation and diagnosis, management, prevention, and special situations.

COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus). DynaMed
Includes evidence updates related to special populations, cancer patients, pregnant patients, and patients with chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease.

NHS specialty guides. NHS
For patient management during the coronavirus pandemic. Specialties covered include adult critical care, A&E, medicine, cancer, surgery, children, obstetrics and gynaecology, musculoskeletal, radiology, palliative as well as general guides on coronavirus treatment.

Specialty-specific guidance on clinical care and treatment for COVID-19. Royal College of Physicians (RCP)
Links to guidance for healthcare professionals seeking specialty advice for specific medical conditions, particularly those outside their own specialty.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection and pregnancy. Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG)

COVID-19 guidance for NHS workforce leaders. NHS Employers
This guidance deals with workforce and HR issues providing protection and support for NHS staff and is intended to supplement and support local plans.

Resource hubs and compilations

Finding the evidence: Coronavirus. Public Health England

Coronavirus (COVID-19) – Cochrane resources and news. Cochrane
Includes their special collections bringing together Cochrane reviews identified as most directly relevant to, for example, critical care and infection control and prevention.

COVID-19 resource. Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP)

COVID-19 information hub. Royal College of Surgeons (RCS)

COVID-19 pandemic. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
Extensive resources, dashboards, infographics, leaflets, videos and latest updates in Europe and worldwide.

Coronavirus Knowledge Hub. Frontiers
Provides a current source of trusted information and analysis on coronaviruses, including the latest research articles and commentary from the worldwide scientific community.

Leading through COVID-19. The King’s Fund
A resource portal for supporting health and care leaders.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) and older people. British Geriatrics Society
Current advice relating to older people and the current COVID-19 pandemic.

CEBD Coronavirus Resource for Dermatology. Centre of Evidence Based Dermatology
Includes links to guidelines, evidence-based resources and journal articles related to the implications of coronavirus for dermatology. Topics include the impact of gloves and hand washing, issues around patients on biologics and other immune-modulating drugs, and how dermatology services can continue to be delivered in the current environment.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) advice for social care. Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

COVID-19 information for clinicians. UpToDate

RCS COVID-19 Research Group Repository.
The repository encompasses the outputs of research generated by over 50 projects that form the Royal College of Surgeons COVID-19 Research Group. The COVID-19 Research Group is a working group that brings together COVID-specific projects supported by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, in order to share ideas, collaborate and support research activity.

Emerging research literature (including search strategies for databases)

LitCovid: curated literature hub for tracking up-to-date scientific information about the Coronavirus. National Library of Medicine

Recently published open access articles on COVID-19. Europe PMC

Search strategy on COVID-19. PubMed

The RSM Library can replicate this search strategy in Embase, a biomedical and pharmacological bibliographic database. For a free bibliography of articles on COVID-19 up to abstract level from Medline and/or Embase, please email litsearch@rsm.ac.uk.

Search strategy for relevant clinical trials on COVID-19. ClinicalTrials.gov

COVID-19 Live Literature Searches. Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA)
Automatic PubMed searches organised by topic.

NICE Evidence Search. NICE
A quick general search on coronavirus or COVID-19.

Global research on coronavirus disease (COVID-19). World Health Organization (WHO)
The latest scientific findings and knowledge into a database of publications updated daily and searchable by author, title, keyword, journal, or by general topic.

COVID-19: a living systematic map of the evidence. EPPI Centre
Studies identified in Medline and Embase grouping the evidence into broad themes such as transmission/risk/prevalence, diagnosis, and vaccine and treatment developments.

Latest research on COVID-19. Dimensions
Provides access to the latest research on COVID-19, updated once every 24 hours. Research outputs include datasets and clinical trials.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): Evidence Collection. Evidence Aid

COVID-Evidence: a living database of trials on interventions for COVID-19. COVID-Evidence
A database gathering evidence on treatment and care interventions providing both extracted information and links to original data sources. The current beta version is mainly populated with registered clinical trials but eventually ‘living’ meta-analyses will be included when they become available.

Live meta-analysis and evidence synthesis of potential therapies for COVID-19. metaEvidence

RSM Library resources (for members only)

Members have access to an extensive range of e-resources covering subscribed e-journals, e-books and medical databases (including Medline and Embase) accessed through our Digital Library.

COVID-19 research database:

Accessible from our Medical Databases link, this database provides free access to material on the COVID-19 outbreak published since November 2019 in premium biomedical databases on Dialog and all the content of the ProQuest Coronavirus Research Database. It includes articles on clinical observation, treatments, drug and vaccine development, nursing, and management strategies.

The database is updated daily and will continue to grow as more is learned and published about the pandemic. When viewing search results, some citations have automatic full-text article provision but for those that don’t, we provide links to check whether full-text is available in our e-journals collection.

EBSCO Discovery tool:

Links to ‘EBSCO COVID-19 Healthcare Resource Center’ and ‘DynaMed COVID-19 Topic’ on the right-hand side of results screens.
COVID-19 direct links in the top toolbar to a global map, WHO and CDC news.

ClinicalKey:

Type ‘covid-19’ in the search box and use the filters on the left-hand panel to focus your results (e.g. by clinical overviews, full-text journal articles, clinical trials, guidelines, images or patient education leaflets). If you’re unfamiliar with searching ClinicalKey, get started with our Helpsheet.

Download our guide for accessing e-resources which includes instructions on how to specifically access the medical databases, Discovery tool and ClinicalKey.

e-Journal access:

Most publishers are providing free access to COVID-19 articles in top scientific journals, including those listed below. Members also have access to an extensive range of subscribed e-journals, accessed through our Digital Library.

The National Library of Medicine is expanding access to coronavirus literature through PubMed Central. A list of participating publishers and journals is available here.

Online training and webinars

RSM Live – COVID-19 Series. The Royal Society of Medicine
Free webinars from the RSM run every Tuesday and Thursday. Dedicated to giving healthcare workers on the frontlines regular and easy-to-access updates from healthcare leaders. Recordings of previous webinars are also available, supplemented by resources and guidance links.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) programme. Health Education England’s e-Learning for Healthcare (HEE e-LfH)
Aimed at the entire UK health and social care workforce both in the NHS and the independent sector, this is a continually developing e-learning programme to include new sessions and material curated from various organisations not just from the NHS and HEE.

COVID-19 Q&A. Royal College of Surgeons (RCS)
Free recordings of a regular series of webinars discussing the impact of COVID-19 on the surgical workforce for RCS members.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) supporting online courses. BMJ Learning
Modules relevant to COVID-19 including on airway management have been made freely available. No need for a BMJ login – just create a free account.

Free online courses. FutureLearn (Open University):

COVID-19: Tackling the Novel Coronavirus by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and UK Public Health Rapid Support Team. Started on 23 March 2020. Duration of course: 3 weeks.
Managing COVID-19 in General Practice by St. George’s University of London. This course is based around guidance by UK public health bodies and aimed at front-line healthcare professionals working in the UK primary care sector. Started on 6 April 2020. Duration of course: 2 weeks.
COVID-19 Critical Care: Understanding and Application by the University of Edinburgh and Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Started on 6 April 2020. The course is flexible with no end date, allowing the selection of materials most relevant to your work. Elsevier and McGraw Hill have agreed to make three e-books open for this course: Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine, Evidence-Based Practice of Critical Care (Deutschman and Neligan) and Critical Care (Oropello, Pastores and Kvetan).

You can join FutureLearn courses if they’ve already started or review course materials without completing the course. For most free courses, you’ll have access for the duration of the course plus 14 days, regardless of when you join.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19 training): online training. World Health Organization (WHO)

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) intended for healthcare workers and public health professionals, focusing on preparation to respond to a case of an emerging respiratory virus, identifying a case once it occurs, and implementing IPC measures to ensure no further transmission in a healthcare facility. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/training/online-training

COVID-19: Return to practice learning plan. MIMS Learning
A free learning plan covering recent key developments in primary care for GPs and nurses returning to practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Latest NICE guidance and recent changes to prescribing recommendations and clinical practice in key topic areas are also provided as part of this plan.

COVID-19 Digital Education. Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
Free webinars including recordings on issues affecting healthcare professionals and the provision of care during COVID-19.

Telephone triage podcast. Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP)
These recordings cover general points about how to safely triage particularly related to COVID-19 and how to assess symptoms such as shortness of breath over the phone.

Coronavirus: know the facts. Focus Games
A free online game for healthcare staff.