Emergency Medicine News and Research

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BioTel system to test methods of improving cardiac arrest

UT Southwestern Medical Center is among 10 institutions selected to oversee innovative clinical trials designed to test life-saving interventions for critical trauma and sudden cardiac arrest.

11 Jul 2006

Chlorhexidine decreases risk of acquiring hospital-related ventilator-associated pneumonia

Researchers found that administering the topical antiseptic chlorhexidine to critically ill patients on mechanical ventilation greatly decreased their daily risk of acquiring deadly hospital-related ventilator-associated pneumonia.

18 Jun 2006

Better education needed on physical dangers of falling TV sets to children

Adults need to be better educated about television's potential harm - not content or programming, but the physical danger of falling sets, according to a recent UT Southwestern Medical Center study.

1 Jun 2006

Parents rarely use baby gates

A recent study by researchers in emergency medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center found parents use baby gates and bath thermometers less than 25 percent of the time and pediatricians are partially to blame.

3 May 2006

A new study shows unbelted crash occupants represent 68 percent of patients dying in emergency departments

In the nation's first statewide study of its kind, the Injury Research Center of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee has revealed new data on an old problem - people who don't use seatbelts. The researchers found that unbelted crash occupants who make it to an emergency department alive are more than three times as likely as belt users to die.

11 Apr 2006

Emergency departments score poorly in child-saving drills

A mock-drill study conducted in a third of North Carolina's hospital emergency departments (EDs) revealed that nearly all failed to properly stabilize seriously injured children during trauma simulations, according to a team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and Duke University Medical Center.

13 Mar 2006

Better tests needed for fuller view of head injuries

Concussion patients with a normal head CT scan may believe they are free of brain injury, but CT scans often miss damage at the molecular level, warns a University of Rochester Medical Center study.

1 Mar 2006

Injury risks posed by paper shredders

As our environments change over time with technology, pediatric emergency specialists are continuously challenged to observe possible trends and prevent more injuries by educating the public.

7 Feb 2006

Faculty of 1000 Medicine launched by BioMed Central

Faculty of 1000 Medicine, a major new online service designed to help medics keep abreast of the most important new research, is now live.

23 Jan 2006

Hyperbaric oxygen treatments mobilizes stem cells aiding injury repair

According to a study to be published in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulation Physiology, a typical course of hyperbaric oxygen treatments increases by eight-fold the number of stem cells circulating in a patient's body.

29 Dec 2005

Healthy 3 and 4-year-olds drive flu epidemics

Current immunization policies recommend universal flu vaccination for children aged 6-23 months, but shots are advised for older children only if they have high-risk medical conditions.

3 Oct 2005

Grant for private, secure, electronic medical records search system

A Boston consortium has been awarded one of two national grants to form a CDC Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics.

28 Sep 2005

Time-to-treatment is important to success of angioplasty treatment

An in-depth look at hospitals that reduced treatment delays highlights steps other hospitals could take to provide rapid angioplasty treatment to heart attack patients, according to a new study in the Oct. 4, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

28 Sep 2005

Changes in the way illness is dealt with in the community are putting undue pressure on emergency care services

The changing patient profile of emergency care medicine in the UK has increased waiting times for seriously ill patients needing urgent treatment, finds a study in Emergency Medicine Journal.

27 Sep 2005

Still a long way to go in diagnostic evaluation of all patients who suffer ischemic strokes

Women who survive a stroke are less likely than men to get crucial tests of their heart and neck arteries that can help improve their treatment and reduce their risk of a second stroke, a new University of Michigan study finds.

27 Sep 2005

People use discretion in deciding when show up in the emergency department

When is a medical emergency really an emergency? Not during key Boston Red Sox games, report investigators from Children's Hospital Boston in a letter published in the October issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine.

26 Sep 2005

More than two thirds of meta-analyses available to critical care physicians have major methodological flaws

Research published in Critical Care concludes that the overall quality of meta-analyses in this field is poor, but has improved over time, possibly due to the publication of the Quality of Reporting of Meta-analyses statement (QUOROM) in 1999.

19 Sep 2005

Afghan refugee children and young adults prone to injury

Pakistan is home to 2 million Afghan refugees who fled a communist coup and Soviet occupation in 1978. A study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins University found that Afghan refugees under the age of 29 years experience more injuries than their older counterparts and children in developed countries.

10 Sep 2005

Enrollment at U.S. medical schools has changed very little over the last 10 years

The authors found that the number of medical students in 1994-1995 and in 2004-2005 remained constant, at about 67,000. The number of full-time faculty members increased from 90,016 in 1994-1995 to 119,025 in 2004-2005 (a 32 percent increase).

7 Sep 2005

Study indicates that patients with a cervical spinal injury may harbor additional spinal damage not visible on regular x-rays

In fact, more than a third of patients who were thought to have low-risk injuries actually have additional damage that may include significant fractures with the potential to produce serious spinal problems if not detected and treated properly.

7 Sep 2005