North Texas doctors team up to form coalition to combat COVID-19

North Texas doctors say they need more timely information to better fight COVID-19. So physicians from six counties are forming an alliance to gather and share knowledge.

DALLAS - North Texas doctors say they need more timely information to better fight COVID-19. So physicians from six counties are forming an alliance to gather and share knowledge.

The doctors say they need data in real-time to really fight the virus spread.

“What we're trying to be is not secondary recipients with a lag time, but really keeping each other informed about what’s happening on the ground,” said Dr. Jonathan Williams with the Grayson County Medical Society. “Boots on the ground. Who needs help. Where they need it.”

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To better share information, six county medical societies are forming what is now the largest alliance of doctors in the south. Nearly 12,000 doctors are part of the new North Texas Medical Society Coalition.

“Physicians have to talk to physicians for a common enemy, and that's why we're standing together,” Williams said. “We're gonna fight any misunderstanding, lack of knowledge and the disease, and we want to do it as a team.”

The group is focused on the science of this novel coronavirus.

“We don’t have the answers yet,” said Dr. John Flores with the Denton County Medical Society. “But we do know what can protect you, and we know what's worked in the last six weeks to two months that brought these numbers down.”

Face coverings, hand hygiene and physical distancing have all worked.

And when it comes to testing and numbers, positive tests or hospital capacity? What should we really focus on?

“For me, I like to look more at how many people required hospitalization or significant medical treatment,” said Dr. Sherine Reno with the Collin-Fannin Medical Society. “But just because the total number is high, that doesn’t mean the number of truly sick people is high.”

“Making decisions about are we really in a good position to relax restrictions? We're looking at the numbers of individuals being hospitalized or entering ICUs,” explained Dr. Mark Casanova with the Dallas County Medical Society.”

“The more patients we have admitted to the hospital with the illness, then those hospital numbers and the percentage of beds that are full will continue to rise,” said Dr. Beth Kassanoff with the Dallas County Medical Society.

With a rise in the number of businesses reopening Friday, the coalition wants you to keep doing what’s worked.

“The message we want to give is that we can't let up the efforts that we've done such a good job at so far,” Kassanoff said.

The group is urging people to call their personal physicians, go see your doctor, tele-visit, get your prescriptions refilled and do what you can to be well.