October 18, 2021

LONG BRANCH, NJ (MONMOUTH)–The latest published study by Monmouth Medical Center physicians showcasing landmark COVID-19 research compares the demographic characteristics, clinical presentation, and disease severity of the second wave of COVID-19 with the first wave in the United States.

The manuscript titled “Variation in Clinical Characteristics, Outcomes, and Mortality of Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 during the Second Wave of the Pandemic: a Single-Center Experience” was published in the September 2021 issue of Journal of Investigative Medicine.  It is the third COVID-19 research study conducted by MMC’s Department of Medicine to be published in a national medical journal.

The latest manuscript comes from Kenneth M. Granet, MD, FACP, the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer and Immediate Past Chairman of the Department of Medicine; Dean Patton, MD, Medical Director of Pulmonary Rehabilitation and Critical Care medicine; and Internal Medicine resident physicians Mohsin Sheraz Mughalan, Ikwinder Preet Kaur, Reem Alhashemi, and Alvin Buemio, and Chang Wang from the Department of Medicine, Rutgers University. In their single-center study, the clinicians also investigated and compared clinical outcomes and in-hospital mortality of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 during the second wave of the pandemic and compared it with that of the first wave.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study in the USA that compares hospitalized patients with COVID-19 between the first and second waves of the pandemic,” said Dr. Granet, one of the lead contributors to the study. “We found that inpatient mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients was higher during the first wave at 15.5% vs 5.9% during the second wave. However, even though the mortality rate is lower, it is important to adhere to public health measures to limit community spread to end this pandemic.”

“This new published study is yet another example of the important COVID-19 research efforts being conducted at Monmouth Medical Center,” says Eric Carney, President and Chief Executive Officer, MMC and Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus. “We commend these Monmouth Medical Center physicians for their important contribution to the critical research that is needed to safely and effectively combat the COVID-19 virus.”

The study comes on the heels of two other COVID-19 studies conducted by the MMC Department of Medicine, including a groundbreaking study examining the prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies among healthcare professionals working in intensive care units and another that looked at ventilator-dependent acute hypoxic respiratory failure (VDAHRF) – which is associated with a higher mortality rate – in a hospital setting.

To learn more about Monmouth Medical Center, visit rwjbh.org/monmouth.

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