Ethical Surgical Triage of Head and Neck Cancer Patients During COVID-19

Over three weeks, an otolaryngologic triage committee supervised 65 cases at a Miami hospital system during the COVID-19 pandemic. The dataset, described by Francisco Civantos of the University of Miami, tabulates decisions made to balance patient health with public health concerns. It documents the process of resource allocation, including patient testing and non-surgical option screening, after hundreds of surgeries were cancelled.

Use Cases

• Modeling surgical triage protocols based on documented committee decisions and resource constraints.
• Analyzing the impact of pandemic resource scarcity on cancer treatment timelines based on described case deferrals.
• Studying ethical frameworks in clinical decision-making based on the described involvement of hospital ethicists.
• Evaluating infection control measures for urgent surgeries based on described pre-operative SARS-CoV-2 testing protocols.

Strengths

• Describes 65 supervised cases over a defined three-week period.
• Documents a specific, ethically-managed triage process involving a dedicated committee and hospital ethicists.
• Originates from a real-world clinical setting during the COVID-19 pandemic peak.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

University of Miami

Collection Method

Created by an otolaryngologic triage committee to document case supervision and decision-making.

Time Range

Three weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Geography

Miami hospital system, USA.