Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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To determine the proportion of non-motorised road users involved in road traffic crashes that presents to hospital intoxicated. ⋯ Intoxication was common among non-motorised road users, and the proportion of intoxicated patients in this subgroup appears unchanged over time despite public awareness programmes. The true burden of intoxication in non-motorised road users remains unknown because of a lack of routine testing. Legislation directed at testing for intoxication of non-motorised users and introduction of penalties should be considered to improve safety of all road users.
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Emergency care needs to be underpinned by the highest quality evidence. However, research involving critically ill patients in the emergency setting has unique ethical, logistical and regulatory issues. ⋯ Alternatives to informed consent are discussed. Human research ethics committees require a greater understanding of consent issues in emergency care research for Australia to remain competitive internationally.
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2017
What is the chance all your trainees will pass the next Fellowship exam: A statistician's view.
Your department has had a good track record over many years for preparing trainees to successfully sit for the ACEM Fellowship exam. On average the pass rate for your trainees is over 80%. Then, to your dismay, suddenly only two of five of your trainees pass the latest Fellowship exam. ⋯ Thus despite an 80% pass rate historically, the probability that only two of five candidates will pass is not negligible at 5.1%. It is an anomaly, which we may choose not to act on unless it is recurrent, noting it will be expected to occur naturally about one time out of 20. The real challenge is to maintain or increase that individual probability at 80% or higher.