AAPM&R will provide consistent updates on our advocacy outreach efforts, the Multi-Disciplinary PASC Collaborative and other relevant information on our Long COVID initiative.

COCA Call: Evaluating and Supporting Patients Presenting with Fatigue Following COVID-19

Several AAPM&R members will be discussing our new fatigue guidance statement on an upcoming Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) call on Thursday, September 30 from 1-2 pm (CT). Benjamin Abramoff, MD, MS, FAAPMR; Joseph Herrera, DO, FAAPMR and Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD, FAAPMR, will talk about the guidance in detail, discuss which clinical assessments and tests are needed for an individual patient with fatigue, describe how to apply health equity considerations to clinical care, activity management and reconditioning of Long COVID patients and more. No registration required. Learn more and join the webinar on September 30 using this link. 

AAPM&R Meets with National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's Standing Committee

On Monday, September 13, we met with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's (NASEM) Standing Committee of Medical and Vocational Experts for the Social Security Administration's (SSA) Disability Programs. It's a committee of clinicians and scientists who advice the SSA on medical and vocational issues related to disability. Paul Jett, MD, MBA, FAAPMR, Ballad Health's Medical Director for the Center for Post-COVID Care, and Benjamin Ambramoff, MD, MS, FAAPMR, Penn Medicine's Director of the Post-COVID Assessment and Recovery Clinic and Co-Chair of AAPM&R's Multi-Disciplinary Collaborative, provided insight on our collaborative's work and what our members are seeing in their clinics. Together they focused on the initial patient visits and patient evaluations to paint an accurate picture of how complex this new patient population is, how variable their symptoms may be and how current testing may not adequately capture the effects of Long COVID.