Emer Joyce speaks about the impact COVID-19 has had on the clinical landscape of acute cardiac, intensive care and cardiomyopathy/heart failure services including the wide spectrum of newly proposed inflammatory cardiac syndromes, triggered by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2).
“If myocarditis is and has always been a chameleon of cardiology, then SARS‐CoV‐2 myocarditis may go on to be its pinnacle.”
In the article, Emer shares an interesting perspective as that of both a subspecialist in the field and of her experience as a patient of SARS‐CoV‐2 myocarditis presenting “a birds‐eye view of the physician as patient, the sub‐specialist as sub‐specialist condition sufferer, the one on the far side of the bed as the one in the bed.”
Unique aspects of the physician as patient in a pandemic. Potential less adverse aspects of the physician as patient are highlighted in green, expected more negative and/or compounded impacts of physician as patient are highlighted in shades of orange and red.
She speaks of her experience as a patient, with no sub‐specialists in SARS‐CoV‐2 myocarditis to call on of her gratitude to mentors, colleagues, and bona‐fide experts in the fields of cardiology, heart failure/transplant, cardiac imaging, immunology and infectious diseases, both nationally and internationally, of whom she was able to reach out to and obtain wisdom, empathy and reassurance.
Emer highlights that in her experience, rather than ‘knowing it all’ patients place a much higher importance on needing their physicians “to care enough to reach out, call, debate and discuss, on a backdrop of clinical accountability, empathy and respect.“
