The importance of treatment and recovery plans

Recovered COVID-19 patients play an important role in this pandemic, as they provide a basis upon which treatment plans can be developed to treat and manage other patients. As the number of cases and deaths associated with COVID-19 continue to rise globally, there is also a growing need for information on the longer-term care for patients.

One of the most common management plans in medicine is taking pills, and it is likely to be true in managing COVID-19. With information regarding the best route to full recovery being limited, consideration has to be put on how to best care for patients both in the post-acute stages and after discharge from the hospital or recovering from home. To put things into perspective, undergoing a major surgery is certainly a physical challenge for patients, and it is the post-surgery care which results in the operation's success i.e. pain management, physiotherapy and nutritional advice. For COVID-19 patients, the additional input would be respiratory review and psychiatric support if necessary as the patients regain their health.

It has also been observed that COVID-19 patients might be infectious even after initial recovery so it is mandatory to monitor the recently recovered patients as prudently as symptomatic patients. In this scenario, knowing the possible complications of its after-effect from recovered patients will be helpful to ascertain future disease complications.

With this in mind, it is important for clinicians to put into practice lessons learnt from recovered patients to develop recovery and follow-up treatment plans that can serve as guidelines and best practices drawn from evidence-based experiences.