Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Telehealth has been proposed as one strategy to improve the quality of time-sensitive sepsis care in rural emergency departments (EDs). The purpose of this study was to measure the association between telehealth-supplemented ED (tele-ED) care, health care costs, and clinical outcomes among patients with sepsis in rural EDs. ⋯ Tele-ED capability in a mature rural tele-ED network was not associated with decreased health care costs or improved clinical outcomes. Future work is needed to reduce rural-urban sepsis care disparities and formalize systems of regionalized care.
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In recent years, the academic medicine community has produced numerous statements and calls to action condemning racism. Though health equity work examining health disparities has expanded, few studies specifically name racism as an operational construct. As emergency departments serve a high proportion of patients with social and economic disadvantage rooted in structural racism, it is critically important that racism be a focus of our academic discourse. This study examines the frequency at which four prominent emergency medicine journals, Annals of Emergency Medicine, Academic Emergency Medicine, the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, and the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, publish on health disparities and racism. ⋯ Our findings suggest that the national discourse on racism and calls to action within emergency medicine were followed by an increase in publications on health disparities and racism. Continued investigation is needed to evaluate these trends moving forward.
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Observational Study
Evaluating the performance of the HEART score in a Tanzanian emergency department.
The HEART score successfully risk stratifies emergency department (ED) patients with chest pain in high-income settings. However, this tool has not been validated in low-income countries. ⋯ Among patients with chest pain in a Tanzanian ED, the HEART score did not perform as well as in high-income settings. Locally validated risk stratification tools are needed for ED patients with chest pain in low-income countries.