Emergency Medicine News and Research

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Intubation training could help improve emergency care

Virtually anyone has the skills to safely insert a laryngeal mask airway (LMA) to keep a patient's airway open during resuscitation, and medical expertise isn't required - perhaps just a familiarity with ER, House or Grey's Anatomy.

22 Sep 2009

U.S. hospital emergency departments not equipped to care for children

According to a recent IOM report, only 6 percent of U.S. hospital emergency departments are fully equipped to properly care for children. With high rates of novel H1N1 (swine) flu expected this winter, the time to address these deficiencies is immediate.

22 Sep 2009

Older adults with vitamin D deficiency at a greater risk of heart disease and death

A new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Denver and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) shows vitamin D plays a vital role in reducing the risk of death associated with older age. The research, just published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, evaluated the association between vitamin D levels in the blood and the death rates of those 65 and older. The study found that older adults with insufficient levels of vitamin D die from heart disease at greater rates that those with adequate levels of the vitamin.

22 Sep 2009

Children’s Health Network acquired by MEDNAX

MEDNAX, Inc. (NYSE: MD) has completed the acquisition of Children’s Health Network (CHN), a physician group practice that provides a variety of inpatient pediatric physician services at 11 hospitals in four states.

21 Sep 2009

Critical event experienced by 1 in 20 acutely-ill patients during air-medical transport

During air-medical transport of acutely-ill patients, 1 in 20 experience a critical event such as death, major resuscitation or blood pressure deterioration according to a new study http://www.cmaj.ca/press/cmaj080886.pdf in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) www.cmaj.ca.

15 Sep 2009

Children's Hospital and eClinicalWorks collaborate to implement PCHR

Children's Hospital Boston and eClinicalWorks(R) today announced a collaboration that will enable patients who are seen at Children's ambulatory programs and in primary care practices in the Pediatric Physicians' Organization at Children's (PPOC) to aggregate health data from both sites of care into a single personally controlled health record (PCHR).

15 Sep 2009

Plastic surgeons in disaster-relief efforts can improve long-term outcomes for victims

When a terrorist bomb explodes, a tornado rips through a town, a hurricane devastates a region, or wildfires ravage homes and businesses, plastic surgeons are not typically atop the list of emergency responders.

11 Sep 2009

Follow President Obama's leadership: HCLA urges Congress

The Health Coalition on Liability and Access today commended President Obama for acknowledging the need to reform our nation's broken medical liability system, and calls on Congress to follow the President's leadership by including reform in pending health care legislation.

11 Sep 2009

Rhode Island Hospital to identify a model for integrating screening and brief interventions for alcohol misuse

There are an estimated 7.6 million alcohol-related emergency department (ED) visits each year in the country. A first step in identifying an alcohol problem is screening all ED patients utilizing two well-researched screening tests.

24 Aug 2009

AETC Chicago launches 24/7 veterinary emergency care center

As of September 1, Chicago's approximately 1.6 million pets* will have access to 24-hour emergency medical attention - and ongoing hospitalization - should they fall victim to accident or illness. Located at 3927 W. Belmont, Animal Emergency & Treatment Center (AETC) is the only veterinary emergency and specialty center in the city to offer care at any hour of the day or night, 365 days a year.

21 Aug 2009

Cyanide toxicity in smoke inhalation victims

"If commercial flying had as many civilian fatalities as those relating to smoke and fire, there would be a public revolt," said Rob Schnepp, CPTC president and assistant chief of special operations for the Alameda County Fire Department in California. "The numbers aren't going down, and this tells me that we aren't addressing the problem adequately.

18 Aug 2009

Assisted ventilation in cardiac arrest rescue may lower chances of survival

Arizona researchers have added another piece to the mounting body of evidence that suggests during resuscitation efforts to treat patients in cardiac arrest, "passive ventilation" significantly increases survival rates, compared to the widely practiced "assisted ventilation."

12 Aug 2009

Cooling unconscious cardiac arrest survivors increases survival, cost effective

Cooling unconscious cardiac arrest survivors can increase survival and has a cost effectiveness comparable to other widely accepted treatments in modern health care, researchers report in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

4 Aug 2009

Emergency physicians should trust their judgment on chest pain symptoms

Their research suggests that emergency physicians should counsel with other physicians against discharge when they feel strongly about a patient for whom there is no compelling data, other than our evaluation and judgment, Chandra said.

4 Aug 2009

Machine designed to reduce infections and cut back on expensive "disposables"

Johns Hopkins experts in applied physics, computer engineering, infectious diseases, emergency medicine, microbiology, pathology and surgery have unveiled a 7-foot-tall, $10,000 shower-cubicle-shaped device that automatically sanitizes in 30 minutes all sorts of hard-to-clean equipment in the highly trafficked hospital emergency department.

30 Jul 2009

Uninsured account for 20% of U.S. ER visits

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released new data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample -- the largest, all-payer emergency department database in the United States.

15 Jul 2009

Simulating medical situations helps students learn, retain basic science concepts

Simulating medical scenarios helps medical students learn and retain vital information, according to a new study done by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

14 Jul 2009

Researchers test whether estrogen could improve outcomes after traumatic brain injury, shock

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers are conducting two pilot clinical trials to determine whether a single, early dose of estrogen can improve survival and neurological outcomes after severe traumatic brain injury or traumatic hemorrhagic shock.

29 Jun 2009

Biomarker in urine for appendicitis

Appendicitis is the most common childhood surgical emergency, but the diagnosis can be challenging, especially in children, often leading to either unnecessary surgery in children without appendicitis, or a ruptured appendix and serious complications when the condition is missed.

23 Jun 2009

Expert physician on “meaningful use” guidelines

Jonathan Teich, M.D., is the Chief Medical Informatics Officer (CMIO) at Elsevier, the world's largest publisher of scientific, technical and medical information. He is also an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a board-certified attending physician in emergency medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston.

16 Jun 2009