The impact of COVID-19 on organ donation and transplantation in the UK: lessons learned from the first year of the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on UK deceased organ donation and transplantation activity. We used national audit data from NHS Blood and Transplant to explore in detail the effects of the pandemic in comparison with 12 months pre-pandemic, and to consider the impact of the mitigating strategies and challenges placed on ICU by 'waves' of patients with COVID-19. Between 11 March 2020 and 10 March 2021, referrals to NHS Blood and Transplant of potential organ donors were initially inversely related to the number of people with COVID-19 undergoing mechanical ventilation in intensive care (incident rate ratio (95%CI) per 1000 patients 0.

Differentiated Entry or "Me-Too" Entry in Bertrand and Cournot Oligopoly.

When would an oligopolistic entrant imitate an incumbent's product ("me-too" entry), rather than horizontally differentiate? We allow an entrant's product choice to vary endogenously with the cost of product differentiation. Such endogenity of product differentiation significantly affects the comparison of Bertrand and Cournot duopoly. We find that if Bertrand entry occurs, products are differentiated, whereas there is a substantial region in which Cournot entry involves a homogenous product.

Practice guidelines: a safe legal lifeline?

To what degree should compliance with clinical practice guidelines protect you from a malpractice charge? And will physicians who are offered such protection practice less defensively, and thus less expensively? As guidelines proliferate, answers are emerging.