The University of Kansas Health System is treating a total of 43 COVID patients today, 52 Monday. Other significant numbers:

• 20 with the active virus today, 24 Monday
• 3 in ICU, 2 Monday
• 1 on a ventilator, 1 Monday

Key points from today’s guests:

Dr. Hope Ring, Emergency Medicine physician, The University of Kansas Health System at T-Mobile Center

• Within T-Mobile Center, The University of Kansas Health System has a primary care center.
• Patients are seen on a daily basis, but it can also serve fans and players during the upcoming tournament games.
• There is excellent collaboration between primary care physicians and urgent care and emergency department services to provide coordinated care on site.

Brian Conway, senior administrator, Kansas Team Health

• Kansas Team Health started in 2019 and is a partnership between KU Athletics, The University of Kansas Health System and LMH Health.
• This is very unique – KU is one of the first schools in the country to go to this model and many other schools are looking to copy this.
• Mental health counseling, strength and conditioning and dieticians are also an essential part of the services provided to provide additional resources to student-athletes.
• There are a number of professionals behind the scenes to help athletes get prepared for game days.

Dr. Jarrod Harrell, head primary team physician, Kansas Team Health

• It starts with models to make sure it is set up to provide top care to athletes, without influence from other non-medical personnel who may want to push for a player to get back on the court.
• There is more of an emphasis on mental health screening and support for athletes, including two licensed clinical social workers, a psychiatrist, and others for Kansas Team Health.
• We have an emphasis on screening to identify any concerns or issues that are important for mental health and wellness so they can perform and achieve the goals they have set.
• We’re looking forward to the tournament for the men’s and women’s teams and are ready to continue taking good care of them.

Dr. Jeffrey Randall, head team orthopedic surgeon, Kansas Team Health

• The partnership has been going really well and these affiliations – whether with the Kansas City Chiefs, the Kansas City Royals, or Kansas Team Health –
• It’s a unique, humbling experience to participate in, but this is the best time of year because of the amount of action and games taking place.
• With the conclusion of a long basketball season, there can be a lot of overuse injuries, so we work on helping the men and women athletes prevent those injuries -- and if they do occur, treat them effectively.
• We treat the men and women athletes the same in terms of providing athletic training resources.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control, The University of Kansas Health System

• New national numbers are showing brain fog can linger up to a year in older COVID patients.
• The study in the journal Alzheimer's and Dementia looked at patients 50 years and older who needed to be hospitalized for COVID and it found three main outcomes:
  • Most patients had no brain fog after one month.
  • 20 percent had it after just a few months.
  • 10 percent had brain fog lasting for a year or more.
• The data support the fact that a lot of the long COVID symptoms will be gone by six months to a year.
• It does affect people's quality of life and their daily lives, and we know that NIH has proposed money and research to go to this.
• We are looking at ways to help reduce those symptoms, not just for headache, but for all of those symptoms that people may have from long COVID.

Wednesday, March 8 is the next Open Mics With Dr. Stites. Alex Goodwin's cancer survival story reached halfway around the world. What happens now that Alex is outgrowing the implant that helped save his life six years ago? We will talk live with Alex, his father and his doctor.

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