Frontline Researchers Research Articles

Ethical concerns in aging research: perspectives of global frontline researchers.

This study investigated the ethical landscape of aging research amid the increasing global focus on extending the human lifespan and health span. Our global survey of 180 researchers across 38 jurisdictions revealed divergent perceptions of aging, a consensus regarding the feasibility of delaying aging, and multiple perspectives regarding lifespan extension. The present findings underscore a paradigm shift toward inclusive and ethically sound research, emphasizing the need for an approach that strikes a balance between basic and clinical research. In addition, this study highlighted key ethical concerns in aging research, including the effects of misleading advertising, potential inequality in access to aging interventions, and risks pertaining to the extrapolation of research findings from lower-model organisms to humans. The insights presented in this paper call for an integrated approach for overcoming the complex ethical and societal challenges in aging research to ensure responsible and equitable advancements in this burgeoning field.

Implementing artificial intelligence empowered financial advisory services: A literature review and critical research agenda

Robo-advisors, also known as robo-advisory services, significantly reshape customer service in financial advisory industries, transforming retail investor markets by substituting human financial advisory experts with artificial intelligence empowered services. However, existing literature remains scattered across disciplines, with theories on financial customer service predominantly focused on Internet banking, neglecting artificial intelligence empowered interactions. Thus, service providers need a framework for implementing robo-advisors in frontline service and researchers require an advanced agenda to stimulate future research. Through a systematic, interdisciplinary literature review based on Belanche et al.’s service robot framework, this article contextualizes service robot theories into financial advisory services, synthesizing knowledge on artificial intelligence empowered customer service. We contribute to literature on service robots by contextualizing, refining, and extending the original framework by Belanche et al. and by developing a research agenda with critical perspectives. Moreover, the study yields practical and theoretical insights into artificial intelligence empowered financial advisory services.

Initial Development of a Second Language Discussion Task-Specific Self-Efficacy Instrument: An Illustration for Frontline Researchers

Self-efficacy has emerged as a popular construct in second language research, especially in the frontline and practitioner-researcher spaces. A troubling trend in the relevant literature is that self-efficacy is often measured in a general or global manner. Such research ignores the fact that self-efficacy is a smaller context-driven construct that should be measured within a specific task or activity where time, place, and purpose domains are considered in the creation of the measurement. Task-based language teaching researchers have also largely neglected the affective factors that may influence task participation, including self-efficacy, despite its potential application to understanding task performance. In this report, we present an instrument specifically developed to measure English as a foreign language students’ self-efficacy beliefs when performing a dialogic, synchronous, quasi-formal group discussion task. The instrument's underlying psychometric properties were assessed ( N = 130; multisite sample from Japanese universities) and evidence suggested that it could measure a unidimensional construct with high reliability. The aggregate scale constructed from the instrument's items also displayed a central tendency and normal unimodal distribution. This was a positive finding and suggested that the instrument could be useful in producing a self-efficacy measurement for use in the testing designs preferred by second language researchers. The potential applications of this instrument are discussed while highlighting how this report acts as an illustration for investigators to use when researching self-efficacy.

‘Don't cross the line, you're a researcher and not an educator’: Incorporating indigenous researchers' moral perspectives to improve ethical protocols in health research

Given that researchers from North America and Europe author most global scientific publications, indigenous frontline researcher perspectives are rarely incorporated in the general research enterprise and ethics. Addressing this shortcoming, we analyzed a subset of data from a larger study. We present results from semi-structured in-depth ethnographic interviews with nine indigenous research assistants (RAs) conducted in Southern Africa four years after implementing a national HIV/AIDS study collaboratively implemented by national, U.S., and European-based stakeholders. The aim is to elucidate how these frontline researchers understand and interpret the task of maintaining their role as researchers and when they felt it more appropriate to cross to prevention educator or interventionist. The obtained results demonstrate how practices intended to protect participants and produce minimally biased ethical data create a conflict for frontline researchers by pitting operational ethics against their humanity. RAs understood and accepted the standard study procedures and the need to maintain their role as researchers. Nevertheless, a majority chose to provide unsolicited information or advice to participants despite the risk of potentially losing their job or causing harm to participants. RAs justified their decision to intervene by the lack and questionable quality of local resources/referrals and the long turnaround from data collection to prevention programming. This article demonstrates how practical exigencies in fulfilling IRB/ethics oversight and designing studies that produce the expected standard of evidence to influence policy and programmatic decisions inadvertently stifle opportunities to translate research into action. We offer specific points of reflection for researchers trained in High Income Country (HIC) perspectives towards decolonizing and improving practices in designing ethical research and establishing reflexive work environments with indigenous researchers.

Protein structure-based in-silico approaches to drug discovery: Guide to COVID-19 therapeutics.

With more than 5 million fatalities and close to 300 million reported cases, COVID-19 is the first documented pandemic due to a coronavirus that continues to be a major health challenge. Despite being rapid, uncontrollable, and highly infectious in its spread, it also created incentives for technology development and redefined public health needs and research agendas to fast-track innovations to be translated. Breakthroughs in computational biology peaked during the pandemic with renewed attention to making all cutting-edge technology deliver agents to combat the disease. The demand to develop effective treatments yielded surprising collaborations from previously segregated fields of science and technology. The long-standing pharmaceutical industry's aversion to repurposing existing drugs due to a lack of exponential financial gain was overrun by the health crisis and pressures created by front-line researchers and providers. Effective vaccine development even at an unprecedented pace took more than a year to develop and commence trials. Now the emergence of variants and waning protections during the booster shots is resulting in breakthrough infections that continue to strain health care systems. As of now, every protein of SARS-CoV-2 has been structurally characterized and related host pathways have been extensively mapped out. The research community has addressed the druggability of a multitude of possible targets. This has been made possible due to existing technology for virtual computer-assisted drug development as well as new tools and technologies such as artificial intelligence to deliver new leads. Here in this article, we are discussing advances in the drug discovery field related to target-based drug discovery and exploring the implications of known target-specific agents on COVID-19 therapeutic management. The current scenario calls for more personalized medicine efforts and stratifying patient populations early on for their need for different combinations of prognosis-specific therapeutics. We intend to highlight target hotspots and their potential agents, with the ultimate goal of using rational design of new therapeutics to not only end this pandemic but also uncover a generalizable platform for use in future pandemics.

Making the most of cybercrime and fraud crime report data: a case study of UK Action Fraud.

IntroductionResearchers and public authorities are increasingly exploring the potential of administrative data to generate new insights. This includes recent work leveraging the opportunities of the crime report data collected by the UK’s national reporting centre Action Fraud (AF). However, the quality of these data and its implications for data users have not been systematically analysed.ObjectivesThis paper outlines challenges and opportunities of using AF data in cybercrime and fraud victimisation research and practice and makes recommendations to improve the quality of this dataset.MethodsThe author has undertaken two studies using samples of AF data pertaining to crime reports within the Welsh police forces, between 2014 and 2020. Quality diagnostic checks, reflections and methodological decisions were considered across each study. These were reviewed, key themes were identified and discussed with data users and a broader group of researchers to finalise the recommendations presented.ResultsThe strengths and limitations of AF data are discussed and grouped into themes, closely aligned with four quality dimensions widely used by statistical authorities. This includes an assessment of 1) the impact of under-reporting and 2) the purpose and rules of crime recording, on the relevance of the data to its users; 3) the accuracy and reliability of the data; 4) the consistency of recording and its impact on coherence and comparability; and 5) the accessibility and timeliness of the data.ConclusionsRecommendations are made to improve AF data to generate better quality insights across the dimensions of relevance, accuracy & reliability, coherence & comparability and the accessibility & timeliness of this dataset. Additionally, a data catalogue would enable frontline officers and researchers to make the most of this dataset, harnessing it to produce key insights for crime prevention, investigation, and victim support.

BDCNet: multi-classification convolutional neural network model for classification of COVID-19, pneumonia, and lung cancer from chest radiographs.

Globally, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has badly affected the medical system and economy. Sometimes, the deadly COVID-19 has the same symptoms as other chest diseases such as pneumonia and lungs cancer and can mislead the doctors in diagnosing coronavirus. Frontline doctors and researchers are working assiduously in finding the rapid and automatic process for the detection of COVID-19 at the initial stage, to save human lives. However, the clinical diagnosis of COVID-19 is highly subjective and variable. The objective of this study is to implement a multi-classification algorithm based on deep learning (DL) model for identifying the COVID-19, pneumonia, and lung cancer diseases from chest radiographs. In the present study, we have proposed a model with the combination of Vgg-19 and convolutional neural networks (CNN) named BDCNet and applied it on different publically available benchmark databases to diagnose the COVID-19 and other chest tract diseases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to diagnose the three chest diseases in a single deep learning model. We also computed and compared the classification accuracy of our proposed model with four well-known pre-trained models such as ResNet-50, Vgg-16, Vgg-19, and inception v3. Our proposed model achieved an AUC of 0.9833 (with an accuracy of 99.10%, a recall of 98.31%, a precision of 99.9%, and an f1-score of 99.09%) in classifying the different chest diseases. Moreover, CNN-based pre-trained models VGG-16, VGG-19, ResNet-50, and Inception-v3 achieved an accuracy of classifying multi-diseases are 97.35%, 97.14%, 97.15%, and 95.10%, respectively. The results revealed that our proposed model produced a remarkable performance as compared to its competitor approaches, thus providing significant assistance to diagnostic radiographers and health experts.

Who should receive treatment? Healthcare professionals' perspectives surrounding the medical management of patients with COVID-19.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented challenges for healthcare systems worldwide. This pandemic is much more than a health crisis; it has also raised many ethical challenges. The large number of infected patients amid scarce resources has placed healthcare professionals in a critical situation in which they have to make difficult decisions about how to prioritize their patients. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the ethical challenges experienced and perceived by healthcare professionals working in healthcare institutions and research centers in Saudi Arabia.MethodsSemi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted individually with frontline healthcare providers (physicians and nurses), researchers, and decision-makers involved in the management of COVID-19 cases. Each interview lasted up to 90 minutes. The thematic analysis technique was used to analyse the interview data.FindingsThe participants’ rich experiences, which revealed a number of ethical challenges concerning the provision of medical care to infected patients, were framed around four main themes: treatment challenges related to COVID-19 patients, uncertainty of the medical outcome, medical care discrimination, and decision to discontinue medical treatment.ConclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic has posed huge ethical challenges for healthcare professionals that might lead to psychological issues given the emotional toll related to making life-and-death decisions.RecommendationIn a situation where no reliable and certain treatment is known or well tested, establishing centralized and responsive ethical committees could help reassure and guide practitioners and address their concerns.

Researching, co-creating and testing innovations in paper-based health information systems (PHISICC) to support health workers\u2019 decision-making: protocol of a multi-country, transdisciplinary, mixed-methods research programme in three sub-Saharan countries

BackgroundHealth information systems are crucial to provide data for decision-making and demand for data is constantly growing. However, the link between data and decisions is not always rational or linear and the management of data ends up overloading frontline health workers, which may compromise quality of healthcare delivery. Despite limited evidence, there is an increasing push for the digitalization of health information systems, which poses enormous challenges, particularly in remote, rural settings in low- and middle-income countries. Paper-based tools will continue to be used in combination with digital solutions and this calls for efforts to make them more responsive to local needs. Paper-based Health Information Systems in Comprehensive Care (PHISICC) is a transdisciplinary, multi-country research initiative to create and test innovative paper-based health information systems in three sub-Saharan African countries.Methods/DesignThe PHISICC initiative is being carried out in remote, rural settings in Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique and Nigeria through partnership with ministries of health and research institutions. We began with research syntheses to acquire the most up-to-date knowledge on health information systems. These were coupled with fieldwork in the three countries to understand the current design, patterns and contexts of use, and healthcare worker perspectives. Frontline health workers, with designers and researchers, used co-creation methods to produce the new PHISICC tools. This suite of tools is being tested in the three countries in three cluster-randomized controlled trials. Throughout the project, we have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders and have maintained the highest scientific standards to ensure that results are relevant to the realities in the three countries.DiscussionWe have deployed a comprehensive research approach to ensure the robustness and future policy uptake of findings. Besides the innovative PHISICC paper-based tools, our process is in itself innovative. Rather than emphasizing the technical dimensions of data management, we focused instead on frontline health workers’ data use and decision-making. By tackling the whole scope of primary healthcare areas rather than a subset of them, we have developed an entirely new design and visual language for a suite of tools across healthcare areas. The initiative is being tested in remote, rural areas where the most vulnerable live.

Doubling Time and Its Interpretation for COVID-19 Cases: A Comparative Study in Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, Pune, Maharashtra, India

Background: COVID-19, also known as Novel Corona Virus, causes respiratory disorder in humans and has been declared as a global pandemic in the first quarter of the year 2020 by the World Health Organization. As this pandemic persists the second, third and fourth quarters had shown variation in COVID-19 cases. In the first quarter of the year 2021 again there seems to be a rise in cases of COVID-19. So, a comparative analysis from March 2020 – April 2021 of COVID-19 cases has been studied.
 Methodology: An exponential statistical model was used to calculate the predicted value of COVID-19 using doubling time for a short duration. The cases of COVID-19 were predicted from 10th April 2021 to 10th June 2021 using doubling time and exponential regression method.
 Results: The distribution of cases showed a curve-linear trend over the last one year. We explored various models like exponential, logarithmic (lo-linear), linear, quadratic, and generalized linear model (GLM) to fit into the observed distribution of cases. Since the distribution of cases was perfectly following a linear trend in each of the four segments, we applied a linear regression model to observed distribution and then predicted the anticipated no. of cases by extending this linear trend to a future period (120 day). With the help of the exponential statistical model, doubling time/rate based on prior 9 days, the predictions of up to 2.61 lakhs cases have been done by the end of June 2021.
 Conclusion: This study will be useful for the Government of India and Maharashtra state-specific to Pimpri- Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), Administrative Units, Frontline health workforce, researchers, and scientists. From this study it has been evident that during the pre-lockdown period, in the initial stages there seems to be rise in cases. While, during lockdown period it was observed that there was relatively decrease in the number of cases. After the government authorities imposed the unlock strategies the cases began to rise as compared to the lockdown period. Thus, it appears that only essential services should be open for the citizens of India and the state lockdown should be carried on for the next 3 months (April 2021 - June 2021).

Emotional distress among frontline research staff

Public health research frequently deals with sensitive topics. A growing body of evidence suggests that frontline researchers who elicit or process participant's traumatic experiences are themselves at risk of developing emotional distress or secondary trauma from daily immersion in these data. This both threatens a study's data quality and calls into question how the harms and benefits of conducting research are distributed across a study team. The objective of this study was to explore how frontline research staff in Eswatini experience and process emotional distress as part of their daily work and to describe potential strategies for resilience and coping using qualitative research methods. We conducted 21 in-depth interviews with informants who had worked in data collection, data entry, and transcription on a number of sensitive topics, including HIV, sex work, and LGBT health. We found that emotional distress is a salient experience among frontline research staff working in Eswatini. This distress stems from conducting research against a generalized backdrop of high rates of HIV, violence, and poverty, particularly since research staff are drawn from affected communities and have their own firsthand knowledge of the phenomena they are studying. Moreover, the qualities study staff are often hired for – empathy, compassion, and emotional intelligence – are also traits that may increase their likelihood of feeling distressed by the narratives they encounter in their work. The workplace can serve as a prism, exacerbating or potentially mitigating these risks into harm at the individual, interpersonal, and community level. While not all study teams may have access to formal mental health services, several informants recommended incorporating regular meetings with a trained counselor as part of the overall project. Others recommended building time for team-building or debriefing conversations into the normal workweek, a strategy that would address both the issue of workload and could bolster the already existent strategy of relying on team members for mental health support.

Bottom-up citizen engagement for health emergency and disaster risk management: directions since COVID-19

Bottom-up citizen engagement for health emergency and disaster risk management: directions since COVID-19

Cardiovascular Outcomes in the Acute Phase of COVID-19.

The cumulative number of cases in the current global coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has exceeded 100 million, with the number of deaths caused by the infection having exceeded 2.5 million. Recent reports from most frontline researchers have revealed that SARS-CoV-2 can also cause fatal non-respiratory conditions, such as fatal cardiovascular events. One of the important mechanisms underlying the multiple organ damage that is now known to occur during the acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection is impairment of vascular function associated with inhibition of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. To manage the risk of vascular dysfunction-related complications in patients with COVID-19, it would be pivotal to clearly elucidate the precise mechanisms by which SARS-CoV-2 infects endothelial cells to cause vascular dysfunction. In this review, we summarize the current state of knowledge about the mechanisms involved in the development of vascular dysfunction in the acute phase of COVID-19.

Development of International Human Rights Law in Business and Human Rights: Clarity and Effectiveness as 'Norms of Conduct' for Companies

Businesses have a significant impact on the lives of their employees, consumers and local people, and it is important that their rights are protected. That is why there are laws in place to this effect. However, despite such laws, stakeholders' rights and freedoms are not always respected, and in some countries, these laws don't exist at all, which is why the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights addresses human rights abuses committed in global business operations. But there remains a gap between the theory and practice of business and human rights. Associate Professor Emi Sugawara, Osaka University of Economics and Law, Japan, is seeking to bridge this gap. To this end, her team of frontline researchers of international human rights is working to reassess clarity and effectiveness of international human rights law as 'norms of conduct' for companies through a theoretical consideration. Ultimately, the researchers want to fill knowledge gaps related to business and human rights and influence Japanese society, effecting positive change.

Medical Students as Essential Frontline Researchers During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic hit the United States in March 2020, there was widespread disruption of clinical medical education: Hospital clerkships were suspended nationwide and students were moved out of the hospital and continued their studies remotely through virtual learning systems. Frustrated by not being able to directly care for patients, medical students across the country formed diverse volunteer initiatives to help frontline clinicians. In this article, the authors describe the essential role of medical students at Weill Cornell Medicine in quickly designing and building a large registry of COVID-19 patients who presented at 3 New York City hospitals. The Cornell COVID-19 Registry, which contains granular clinical information on more than 4,000 patients, informed hospital operations and guided clinical management during the first wave of the pandemic. One month after its creation, the registry led to the first published description of the clinical characteristics of a U.S.-based cohort of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Using their experience as a model, the authors propose that students who cannot participate in their clinical clerkships because of the pandemic can augment their traditional medical education by contributing to COVID-19 research. In the case described in this article, students reviewed the management of COVID-19 patients, followed inpatients throughout their hospitalization (much like students would on clinical rotations), and refined their interpersonal skills through discussions with patients and patients' families during follow-up calls. The authors conclude that medical students who are displaced from their hospital rotations can further their education and provide an invaluable contribution to the fight against COVID-19 by serving as essential frontline researchers.

Interdisciplinary Online Hackathons as an Approach to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 outbreak has affected the lives of millions of people by causing a dramatic impact on many health care systems and the global economy. This devastating pandemic has brought together communities across the globe to work on this issue in an unprecedented manner.ObjectiveThis case study describes the steps and methods employed in the conduction of a remote online health hackathon centered on challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to deliver a clear implementation road map for other organizations to follow.MethodsThis 4-day hackathon was conducted in April 2020, based on six COVID-19–related challenges defined by frontline clinicians and researchers from various disciplines. An online survey was structured to assess: (1) individual experience satisfaction, (2) level of interprofessional skills exchange, (3) maturity of the projects realized, and (4) overall quality of the event. At the end of the event, participants were invited to take part in an online survey with 17 (+5 optional) items, including multiple-choice and open-ended questions that assessed their experience regarding the remote nature of the event and their individual project, interprofessional skills exchange, and their confidence in working on a digital health project before and after the hackathon. Mentors, who guided the participants through the event, also provided feedback to the organizers through an online survey.ResultsA total of 48 participants and 52 mentors based in 8 different countries participated and developed 14 projects. A total of 75 mentorship video sessions were held. Participants reported increased confidence in starting a digital health venture or a research project after successfully participating in the hackathon, and stated that they were likely to continue working on their projects. Of the participants who provided feedback, 60% (n=18) would not have started their project without this particular hackathon and indicated that the hackathon encouraged and enabled them to progress faster, for example, by building interdisciplinary teams, gaining new insights and feedback provided by their mentors, and creating a functional prototype.ConclusionsThis study provides insights into how online hackathons can contribute to solving the challenges and effects of a pandemic in several regions of the world. The online format fosters team diversity, increases cross-regional collaboration, and can be executed much faster and at lower costs compared to in-person events. Results on preparation, organization, and evaluation of this online hackathon are useful for other institutions and initiatives that are willing to introduce similar event formats in the fight against COVID-19.

Research in forced displacement: guidance for a feminist and decolonial approach

The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened inequities and undermined health, human rights, and gender equality for forcibly displaced populations The ongoing pandemic has also exposed persisting power hierarchies between researchers and forcibly displaced populations These populations experience power asymmetries in their position as the so-called beneficiaries of humanitarian research and action, and are often excluded from participation in decision making about the research intended to benefit their communities Forcibly displaced women and girls are consistently categorised as vulnerable and needing protection or rescuing, which takes away their agency and power of action, while risking exploitation or abuse by the same humanitarian actors that supposedly aim to protect them We believe that applying a feminist lens is not merely about demolishing problematic structures, but also about collaboratively building up new ones for a more just world (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Causes and Analysis of the High Turnover Rate of Counselors in Private Higher Vocational and Technical Colleges in China

Counselors in China Higher Vocational and Technical College are mainly responsible for educating and guiding students' behavior and moral standards, correcting some students' behavior and strengthening students' legal consciousness. Counselors are good teachers and helpful friends of students' quality education. The characteristics of counselors as important educators cannot be ignored. But in reality, the assessment, evaluation, promotion, salary adjustment and other aspects of higher vocational colleges still favor front-line teachers and researchers, while the counselors are ignored. This practice has damaged the professional confidence and enthusiasm of counselors, which is an important reason for the high dimission rate of counselors, which has aroused the attention of many educators. In this context, as early as 1999, there appeared a lot of academic papers on the analysis and research of the high dimission rate of counselors in private vocational colleges. The high turnover rate of counselors in private higher vocational and technical colleges in China has seriously affected the teaching quality of the schools, as well as the students' behavior and moral norms during the school period. The purpose of writing this article is to study how to solve the problem of high dimission rate of counselors in private vocational colleges through detailed data and systematic demonstration. At the same time, it is scientifically demonstrated that as the director of students' quality-oriented education, the counselor has the characteristics of the implementer of education. Using the method of big data analysis, we come to the conclusion that counselors are important implementers of students' quality-oriented education,and counselors also play an important role in cultivating students' good moral quality. This point of view is affirmed in the article, the counselor's position is irreplaceable.

Integration of patient and clinician narratives into systematic reviews: An applied proof of concept.

Health systems currently underutilize systematic reviews. Here, we describe a proof of concept project designed to augment the standard systematic review process by presenting qualitative information as a companion to a review on deprescribing interventions. We conducted a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with Veterans Health Administration clinicians and Veterans to describe first-hand experiences of engaging in the deprescribing process. Qualitative findings were incorporated into an interactive, web-based product designed to supplement the systematic review report. Preliminary evaluation suggests that integration of narratives as a companion to systematic reviews is of interest to frontline clinicians, researchers, and health system administrators.

Modulation of endothelial organelle size as an antithrombotic strategy

BackgroundIt is long established that von Willebrand factor (VWF) is central to hemostasis and thrombosis. Endothelial VWF is stored in cell‐specific secretory granules, Weibel‐Palade bodies (WPBs), organelles generated in a wide range of lengths (0.5‐5.0 µm). WPB size responds to physiological cues and pharmacological treatment, and VWF secretion from shortened WPBs dramatically reduces platelet and plasma VWF adhesion to an endothelial surface. ObjectiveWe hypothesized that WPB‐shortening represented a novel target for antithrombotic therapy. Our objective was to determine whether compounds exhibiting this activity do exist. MethodsUsing a microscopy approach coupled to automated image analysis, we measured the size of WPB bodies in primary human endothelial cells treated with licensed compounds for 24 hours. Results and ConclusionsA novel approach to identification of antithrombotic compounds generated a significant number of candidates with the ability to shorten WPBs. In vitro assays of two selected compounds confirm that they inhibit the pro‐hemostatic activity of secreted VWF. This set of compounds acting at a very early stage of the hemostatic process could well prove to be a useful adjunct to current antithrombotic therapeutics. Further, in the current SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic, with a considerable fraction of critically ill COVID‐19 patients affected by hypercoagulability, these WPB size‐reducing drugs might also provide welcome therapeutic leads for frontline clinicians and researchers.