Enjoy your Thursday NCMS Morning Rounds.
Dec. 10, 2020
COVID-19 Vaccine: What North Carolina Practices Need to Know
Mark your calendar: Next Tuesday, Dec. 15, from 6 to 7 p.m., State Health Director Betsey Tilson, MD, MPH, and other state health experts will hold a Zoom webinar for health professionals on North Carolina’s plan for the COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
• Here is the link to the webinar: https://zoom.us/j/131899801.
• Here is the call-in information: (646) 558 8656 (New York) Meeting ID: 131 899 801
• The one-tap mobile call in number is: +16465588656,,131899801#
Today, Thursday, Dec. 10, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, which is made up of a group of independent medical experts, will meet to discuss the risks and benefits of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The goal of the daylong meeting is to make a recommendation on whether the FDA should grant Emergency Use Authorization for the vaccine. The FDA does not have to follow the committee’s recommendations, but usually does. Several media outlets have reported that a decision on the vaccine EUA approval will be made within four days of today’s meeting and vaccine distribution would likely take place within the week.
Here is the agenda for the meeting, which begins at 9 a.m. The meeting is open to the public and you can learn more and listen in at this link.
If you would like to learn more about the results of this vaccine’s clinical trials, you can access the FDA Briefing Document here.
A similar meeting for Moderna’s vaccine candidate is scheduled for next Thursday, Dec. 17.
Please Help Us Help You!
The NCMS staff is hard at work planning for 2021 and respectfully requests your input on our educational offerings in the coming months. This quick, 2-minute survey will help us understand what format, time and topics would be most beneficial to you.
If you haven’t already responded, please take just a moment to help us by completing the survey.
NCMS Calendar Goes Virtual This Year
As we hope you already know, the NCMS calendar, featuring amazing photographs taken by your colleagues, is virtual this year. You can access your calendar at this link.
While some will be disappointed not to receive the printed calendar in the mail to hang in your office, this virtual format offers some advantages. For instance, it can be updated regularly to reflect new meetings and learning opportunities; it can be downloaded to your computer for printing or as a screen saver (here is the printable PDF format to download); and, because we had more space flexibility, we were able to add the stories behind many of the photos. Hard-copy or virtual, the stunning images are the same. Let us know what you think of this format by simply responding to this email.
Please enjoy your NCMS calendar and have a safe, healthy and happy 2021!
In the News
A Child’s Death in the Heartland Changes Community Views About COVID, Kaiser Health News, 12-8-20
Learning Opportunity
On Thursday, Dec. 17 at 11 a.m., the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is hosting a one-hour webinar on the 2018 Quality Payment Program performance information recently published on the Doctors & Clinicians section of Medicare Care Compare and in the Provider Data Catalog (PDC), the successor websites to Physician Compare and the Physician Compare Downloadable Database. The webinar will include a live question and answer session and discuss the 2018 doctor and clinician performance information recently added to Care Compare profile pages and in the PDC. Learn more and register here.
If you have policies you’d like your NCMS Board of Directors to consider, please complete the Board input form here. Thanks for reading!