Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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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.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2015
Should external short courses be a compulsory part of ACEM specialty training? No.
I am proud to be a product of an excellent training system that builds trainees and fellows with an ongoing desire to learn. Dogmatic incorporation of external courses into training would be incongruent with medical education best practice principles upon which the new curriculum is founded. I am confident that our junior colleagues can – as we were – be trusted for generations to come to fashion their own learning paths, identifying and addressing their own knowledge gaps, using whatever media engages them best.
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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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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2015
New Zealand Emergency Medicine Network: A collaboration for acute care research in New Zealand.
The specialty of emergency medicine in Australasia is coming of age. As part of this maturation there is a need for high-quality evidence to inform practice. This article describes the development of the New Zealand Emergency Medicine Network, a collaboration of committed emergency care researchers who share the vision that New Zealand/Aotearoa will have a world-leading, patient-centred emergency care research network, which will improve emergency care for all, so that people coming to any ED in the country will have access to the same world-class emergency care.