U.S. Head and Neck Cancer Surgery Practice Patterns During Early COVID-19

Fourteen institutions in the United States contributed data on head and neck cancer care disruptions from March 27 to April 5, 2020. Rusha J Patel et al. collected this data via a shared spreadsheet to monitor real-time practice changes. The dataset likely contains metrics on clinic restrictions, surgical scheduling, and resource shortages.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the impact of PPE shortages on clinical volume based on the reported 35% contribution factor.
• Modeling the effect of COVID-19 testing availability on surgical scheduling based on the 86% factor cited.
• Tracking the evolution of institutional policies for free flap surgery based on the reported cessation at 2 institutions.
• Studying regional variations in head and neck cancer care disruption based on the multi-institutional survey design.

Strengths

• Data was collected from 14 distinct institutions, providing a multi-center perspective.
• Covers a specific, critical time period (March 27 to April 5, 2020) during the early pandemic response.
• Includes quantified contributing factors, such as lack of PPE (35%) and lack of rapid testing (86%).

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, which limits suitability assessment.
• The dataset's temporal coverage is limited to a brief 10-day window.
• Data may reflect bias inherent to the specific 14 institutions that contributed.

Provenance

Source

Rusha J Patel et al.

Collection Method

Head and neck surgeons from 14 U.S. institutions regularly contributed practice patterns to a shared cloud-based spreadsheet.

Time Range

March 27, 2020 to April 5, 2020

Geography

United States