The American journal of emergency medicine
-
The use of the automatic external defibrillator (AED) can significantly reduce the time to defibrillation in patients with sudden cardiac death. This early defibrillation via the AED can also improve patient outcome, including survival and neurologic status among survivors. ⋯ In our design of the system, we found little useful information to guide us in the development and construction our system. This article is a review of the process of public access defibrillation AED system development such that other medical and academic leaders at similar institutions can more easily develop such systems.
-
Emergency physicians, specialists, and primary care doctors across the health care delivery spectrum remain actively engaged in the provision of medical oversight for emergency medical services (EMS) systems, a vital link in the medical continuum of care. Practicing emergency physicians, regardless of their level of formal EMS training, interface with EMS system components and providers on a regular basis. It is important to remain aware of trends and practice patterns that have the potential to affect the care of emergency patients. ⋯ Like a single 12-lead electrocardiographic (ECG) tracing, this review represents a “snapshot” of current discussions in the EMS community. Prehospital medicine is a dynamic discipline, and its practice patterns are not identical to those found in a hospital emergency department (ED). The purpose of this literature review is to familiarize emergency physicians with some of the ongoing discussions in the prehospital literature.