Medical Newsletter Launched By COVID Expands Its Focus – Concord Monitor

Published: 10/2/2022 2:23:33 PM

An influential medical newsletter created to spread information about the pandemic is broadening its approach but, like the rest of us, can’t yet move away from COVID-19.

“Betterment of public health is part of our mission that we probably haven’t focused on as much. But there is a role for us and the pandemic really showed us that,” said James Potter, CEO of the New Hampshire Medical Society. The group’s weekly email newsletter will change its name next month from “COVID-19 Weekly Update” to “Healthy New Hampshire.”

Like all medical professionals, the non-profit association of more than 2,200 licensed physicians, medical residents and medical students saw things upended when the pandemic began. Potter says weekly Zoom calls to share information started in May 2020, two months after the state’s first COVID deaths, and proved very popular, sometimes reaching the 500-person limit.

“Like all other states, our public health infrastructure is not where it needs to be today. A lot of organizations were basically operating in their own silos,” Potter said. “We thought, why don’t we try to connect these groups early, particularly around immunization.”

This led to the creation of a weekly COVID-19 newsletter that curated and shared information and links from state, federal and medical organizations as well as news articles and research.

Potter said other groups, including hard-hit nursing homes and assisted-living centers as well as school systems, have signed up. “It has grown to other practitioner groups, chambers of commerce, church organizations – many others,” he said. That includes media like the Monitor. The newsletter is not open to the general public.

Open rates, the percentage of email addresses that get the newsletter and then click on it to at least read through the headlines, are usually above 50%, which is very high for email newsletters, and occasionally have topped 90% if there’s an ongoing issue, he said.

Although the pandemic shows no signs of ending any time soon – hospitalization numbers from COVID-19 have crept back above 100 this month, according to the Hospital Association – Potter said the group wanted to expand its focus beyond the coronavirus.

“What we learned from this is that there are a lot more organizations and individuals who are interested in public health issues,” said Potter. “At some point COVID becomes more endemic. It may rise again, but as it becomes endemic it’s like the flu and other things that are regularly rising in the community … no longer a pandemic.”

Last week’s newsletter was still called “NH COVID-19 Weekly” and leads with information about the current pandemic. But it includes links to a CDC alert about a virus that can cause paralysis in children, updates on the monkeypox outbreak in New Hampshire and elsewhere, discussion about health warning labels for alcohol and an item about a telehealth pilot program in Manchester schools.

“While information on the COVID pandemic will continue to be a prominent feature, we begin our transition to broader public health efforts in the Granite State,” a notice says at the top of the newsletter.

“We’re thinking about public health on a much more collaborative and extended perspective – not only about immunizations but health screening, wellness, and dealing with internet misinformation,” he said.  “This is a way to approach that.”

from
https://dentoncountynewsonline.com/medical-newsletter-launched-by-covid-expands-its-focus-concord-monitor/