Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To test the hypotheses that ED patients' desires for medical information and for autonomy in decision making are inversely related to increasing acuity of illness, increasing age, and lower level of formal education. ⋯ Among ED patients able to participate, higher acuity of illness was not associated with a decreased desire for medical information. Many very acutely ill patients preferred autonomy in medical decision making. Older patients and those with less formal education expressed a lesser desire for decision-making autonomy.
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To determine whether integrating primary care sports medicine into academic emergency medicine (EM) can enhance both revenue and the academic program. ⋯ The integration of primary care sports medicine into an academic EM faculty practice can enhance revenue through the establishment of an ED follow-up sports medicine clinic while also providing an opportunity to expand resident learning experiences.
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Comparative Study
Emergency department characteristics of male sexual assault.
To characterize the nature, frequency, and treatment of male sexual assault encountered by physicians in an ED. A minor objective compared the lengths of time the victim knew the assailant between males and females to determine whether there were differences between male and female victims. ⋯ The percentage of total sexual assaults occurring in males who present to an ED is now more than 10% of all sexual assaults seen in this urban ED. These assaults are associated with a high proportion of patients with documented trauma. Although the treatment of traditional sexually transmitted diseases appears to be covered well, the need for HIV documentation, counseling, and possible HIV prophylaxis should be addressed more aggressively. In comparing the lengths of the relationships between the victim and the assailant, it appears twice as likely that the female victim will not know her assailant compared with the male, and twice as likely that the male victim will know his assailant less than 24 hours compared with the female.