Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2023
Preventing selfie-related incidents: Taking a public health approach to reduce unnecessary burden on emergency medicine services.
Unintentional deaths from selfies have received limited exposure in emergency medicine literature; yet trauma remains the leading cause of death and disability in children and young adults, and most of those implicated in a selfie incident are in this demographic. Selfie-related injuries and deaths may be a relatively new phenomenon, but data suggest they are a public health hazard that is not going away. Emergency medicine practitioners may have a role to play in the primary and secondary prevention of selfie incidents, including delivering opportunistic behaviour change messaging to those who are at risk of being injured or killed in a selfie-related incident, particularly young (14-25 years) males. Emergency medicine specialists should be aware of the dangers of selfie-related incidents and understand their polytraumatic presentation.
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I propose a methodology to compare individual emergency physician (EP) work patterns. This is intended to generate discussion within the specialty. A work pattern graph shows individual EP productivity and, assuming the EPs case selection is similar, can be used to compare group activity. Using a simple mathematical model, an averaged calculation can be made of the number of patients needed to be seen by each treating clinician during a standard shift.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2023
Buruli ulcer - A neglected tropical disease in the Barwon region of Victoria, Australia: An emerging public health threat with local and national ramifications.
Mycobacterium ulcerans (MU) is known to be endemic in heavily touristed coastal regions of Victoria and is the cause of Buruli ulcer (BU) disease. The incidence, severity and geographic spread of MU infection/BU disease is increasing, including metropolitan Victorian suburbs. ⋯ Opportunities to improve the health system response to this emerging public health threat are identified. It is incumbent upon all healthcare providers, including ED clinicians, to contribute by familiarising themselves with the established and emerging areas of endemicity of MU infection and the array of BU clinical presentations.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2023
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudySodium chloride or plasmalyte-148 for patients presenting to emergency departments with diabetic ketoacidosis: A nested cohort study within a multicentre, cluster, crossover, randomised, controlled trial.
To test the hypothesis that fluid resuscitation in the ED with plasmalyte-148 (PL) compared with 0.9% sodium chloride (SC) would result in a lower proportion of patients with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission. ⋯ Patients with DKA treated with PL compared with SC in the EDs had similar rates of requiring ICU admission.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2023
Introduction of an emergency medicine pharmacist-led sepsis alert response system in the emergency department: A cohort study.
To determine effects of implementing a sepsis alert response system in the ED that included early intervention by emergency medicine (EM) pharmacists. ⋯ Implementation of a sepsis alert response that included early involvement of the EM pharmacist was associated with improvement in time to antimicrobials and other components of the sepsis bundle. An upfront, multidisciplinary approach to patients presenting to the ED with suspected sepsis should be considered more broadly.