Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2015
Historical ArticleAustralasian disasters of national significance: An epidemiological analysis, 1900-2012.
A regional epidemiological analysis of Australasian disasters in the 20th century to present was undertaken to examine trends in disaster epidemiology; to characterise the impacts on civil society through disaster policy, practice and legislation; and to consider future potential limitations in national disaster resilience. ⋯ Timeline analysis reveals an increasing incidence in natural disasters over the past 15 years, with the most lethal and costly disasters occurring in the past 3 years. Vulnerability to disaster in Australasia appears to be increasing. Reactive legislation is a recurrent feature of Australasian disaster response that suggests legislative shortsightedness and a need for comprehensive all-hazards model legislation in the future.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2015
SPEEDBOMB: A simple and rapid checklist for Prehospital Rapid Sequence Induction.
Prehospital emergency medical services often operate in the most challenging and austere environments. Checklist use for complex tasks in these circumstances is useful but must make task completion simpler, faster and more effective. The SPEEDBOMB checklist for Prehospital Rapid Sequence Induction (PRSI) management rapidly addresses critical steps in the RSI process, is designed to improve checklist compliance and patient safety, and is adaptable for local circumstances.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2015
Using lithium ion batteries in the aeromedical environment: A calculated risk?
Lithium ion batteries are increasingly utilised within helicopter emergency medical services. Their favourable chemical profile confers many desirable properties: they are small, lightweight and provide a high specific capacity (energy to weight ratio) coupled with a slow self-discharge rate, ensuring a longer functional availability for vital equipment. They are frequently used in routine medical equipment including ventilators, monitors and intravenous pumps, and in aviation specific items, such as satellite and mobile phones, VHF radios and navigation systems.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2015
Should external short courses be a compulsory part of ACEM specialty training? Yes.
Implementation of a series of mandatory short courses for ACEM trainees will necessitate clear pathways to accreditation, rigourous application of standards and demonstration by course providers of high-quality teaching of up-to-date practices. Trainees and their patients stand to reap wide-ranging benefits from these courses, which might also facilitate the transition to competency- (rather than time-) based training through the College. Completion by all trainees of compulsory courses will provide the community with clarity about the standards to which emergency physicians are trained and might result in improvements in patient outcomes – the very reason for our trainees' hard work and dedication.
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To describe patterns of ED utilisation over time, by patient age group and triage classification. ⋯ The age range with the greatest absolute number of ED presentations in Victoria is children 0-4 years of age. This finding is consistent over time and across all triage classifications. The age range with the second highest absolute number of ED presentations is comprised of those 20-24 years of age. This is in contrast to the frequent public attention placed on the volume of ED presentations by the elderly.