Editorial. COVID-19 and academic neurosurgery

Abstract

the Mass General Brigham Health System sent a first systemwide email broadcast to employees concerning the SARS-CoV-2 virus outbreak in China, and the impact of the associated disease syndrome commonly known as COVID-19.A week later the first case of COVID-19 was noted in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.Little did we know that less than 2 months later, a worldwide pandemic would drastically alter the work of academic departments of neurosurgery across the US.As the world "shelters in place," we are physically distanced from our colleagues, trainees, and care teams and new realities have set in for large academic departments and health systems.Indeed, life is different.What have we learned and how have we responded?Academic departments of neurosurgery across our country are hubs of innovation aiming to foster the next generation of neurosurgeons, discoverers, and leaders in our field.Our two departments of neurosurgery comprise approximately 120 clinical faculty, residents, and advanced practice providers (APPs) who provide neurosurgical care at Harvard's two largest teaching hospitals, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital.Our strategy has been to unleash the creativity of our teams to tackle the myriad problems posed by COVID-19.Led by an overarching Mass General Brigham incident command center, each hospital and department has coordinated and communicated to address the challenge.Recognizing the potential tsunami of COVID-19 cases to come, within a hectic 10-day period in March, we did the following: 1) ceased all physical meetings in the hospital; 2) virtualized all nonessential outpatient visits; 3) stopped performing elective neurosurgery; 4) authorized and implemented remote work for clinical, resident, and support staff; 5) restricted all visitors from our facilities; 6) required every employee on site to wear face mask protection and to attest daily as to symptom-free status; 7) shuttered our wet bench research laboratories; 8) converted a sizable portion of our neurosurgical beds to isolation

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