Multidisciplinary cooperation key in Shanghai's COVID-19 treatment: expert

Multidisciplinary cooperation, observing principles of evidence-based medicine and innovation are key to Shanghai's practice of treating COVID-19 patients, head of the city's experts panel for treating the disease said Thursday.

Zhang Wenhong, also head of the Center for Infectious Disease with Shanghai-based Huashan Hospital of Fudan University, said at a press conference in Beijing that instead of putting patients in separate wards of different departments, Shanghai designated two hospitals to treat the patients at an early stage of the epidemic and staffed the hospitals with city's top medical experts from various disciplines, Zhang said.

These experts, who specialize in infectious disease, respiratory disease, intensive care, heart disease and traditional Chinese medicine, as well as psychologists, were stationed at the hospitals, visited all the patients and gave around-the-clock support to the medical staff working in the wards, according to Zhang.

He noted the importance of observing the principles of evidence-based medicine, which avoided divisions among the experts. The experts gathered a large amount of evidence from Wuhan's experience and made tailored treatment plan for each individual patient, a key in reducing severe cases and thus bringing down the mortality rate.

Moreover, based on the studies and the patients' conditions, the experts proposed some innovative therapies, which had also received positive results, he said.

Zhang said the virus is still a huge challenge for China and for the world but expressed optimism for their future work.

As of Wednesday, Shanghai has reported 339 local COVID-19 cases and 308 imported cases. Seven people died of the disease and 597 had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, according to the city's health authority.