The University of Vermont’s COVID Recovery Program, led by pulmonary physicians David Kaminsky, M.D., and Katherine Menson, D.O., both assistant professors of medicine at the Larner College of Medicine, aims to address one of the biggest hurdles to treatment for so-called long COVID—the disconnected and siloed nature of medical specialties, VTDigger reports. After interviews with long COVID patients, they realized what was needed most was a pathway that could connect patients with multiple specialists.
There is concern that the momentum for helping people with long COVID seems to have ebbed since the pandemic has largely receded from many people’s minds. Kaminsky emphasized the importance of continuing to research long COVID. “If we lose research, then we lose the opportunity to learn about new things and what works, and what doesn’t,” he said.
Gretchen Kitsos, LICSW, who counsels people dealing with the effects of long COVID, says people seem to think, “‘We survived that. Okay. Now let’s move on, and let’s not look in the rear view mirror and understand that that sucker is still with us.’”