Guidance on Head and Neck Examination Safety During the COVID-19 Pandemic

A perspective and guidance document on mitigating transmission risk during head and neck examinations and procedures in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The document draws on lessons from the 2003 SARS-CoV-1 outbreak in Hong Kong and early experience with SARS-CoV-2. It was authored by Jason Y K Chan et al and is available under an Open Access license.

Use Cases

• Informing clinical safety protocols based on described risks of nosocomial infection to healthcare workers.
• Developing training materials for infection control based on the modus operandi and lessons from Hong Kong's SARS experience.
• Supporting risk assessment for outpatient care based on recommendations to transition non-essential visits to virtual consultations.

Strengths

• Draws on specific historical data, citing an outbreak where over 50% of cases were healthcare workers.
• Provides concrete, experience-based recommendations for a high-risk clinical scenario.
• References a specific case count (85,356 U.S. infections reported on March 27, 2020).

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Jason Y K Chan et al

Collection Method

Perspective and guidance based on clinical experience and evidence from SARS-CoV-1 and early SARS-CoV-2.

Time Range

Focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020, with references to the 2003 SARS outbreak.

Geography

Primarily United States and Hong Kong, with mentions of Wuhan, China.