Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2019
ReviewReview article: A primer for clinical researchers in the emergency department: Part 6. Measuring what matters: Core outcome sets in emergency medicine research.
In this series we address important topics for clinicians who participate in research as part of their work in the ED. The overarching goal of clinical research is to improve care and determine which treatment is best. Yet, defining and measuring outcomes - what is 'best' - can be one of the most difficult steps in the design of a study, in particular when answers to research questions cannot be captured in simple binary results. This article addresses how to choose outcome measures and highlights the increasingly important concept of core outcome sets.
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2019
Message in a bottle: How evidence-based medicine and a programme change model improved asthma management in a low-income emergency department in Papua New Guinea.
To improve asthma care in a complex, low resource, developing country setting. This observational study was carried out in a challenging low-income real-life setting in the ED at Modilon Hospital, Papua New Guinea. The only government hospital in Madang Province, with 258 beds, it provides medical care to a population of nearly 700 000 people of whom 40% live on less than US$1.25/day. ⋯ This project highlights the difficulties experienced with change management, both in general and in a limited resource setting. Lack of data limits conclusions about asthma management improvement. However, positive trends were apparent and make this approach reasonable for those considering change management strategies in a similar setting.