Long COVID Presents Many More Questions than Answers, says AAPM&R President-elect Flanagan

Long COVID continues to present more questions than answers—about its risk factors, its etiology, and its course.

Steven Flanagan, MD, president-elect of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and medical director of Rusk Rehabilitation at NYU Langone Health in New York City, recently told Patient Care^© that to date there has been very limited association observed between "severity of injury" associated with a SARS-CoV-2 infection and development of acute sequelae of COVID-19. More details from our conversation follow here.

Steven R. Flanagan, MD, is president-elect of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Chair, Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University Grossman School of Medicine Medical Director, Rusk Rehabilitation, New York University Langone Health, in New York, New York.

Twitter: @flanagan_RUSKmd

In March 2021, AAPM&R launched a multidisciplinary PASC Collaborative of experts from leading academic medical centers across the country to develop clinical guidance to improve quality-of-care and formal education and resources to improve experience-of-care and health equity.

The overarching goal of the Collaborative is to foster engagement and share experiences to propel the health system towards defining standards of care for persons experiencing Long COVID-19/PASC.

To date the Collaborative has published 4 consensus guidance statements on the assessment and treatment of complications in patients with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2. Please take time to review the AAPM&R guidance statements on long COVID-associated cardiovascular complications, cognitive symptoms, breathing discomfort, and fatigue.