Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
Abstract Objective: A panel of Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) members was asked to examine and make recommendations regarding the existing Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) EM Program Requirements pertaining to educational conferences, identified best practices, and recommended revisions as appropriate. ⋯ The conference requirements that were logical and helpful years ago may not be logical or helpful now. Technologies available to educators have changed, the amount of material to cover has grown, and online on-demand education has grown even more. We believe that flexibility is needed to customize EM education to suit individual resident and individual program needs, to capitalize on regional and national resources when local resources are limited, to innovate, and to analyze and evaluate interventions with an eye toward outcomes.
-
Editorial Comment
If you've seen one EMS system, you've seen one EMS system...
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Modafinil and zolpidem use by emergency medicine residents.
The objective was to assess the prevalence and patterns of modafinil and zolpidem use among emergency medicine (EM) residents and describe side effects resulting from use. ⋯ Zolpidem use is common among EM residents, with most users initiating use during residency. Modafinil use is relatively uncommon, although most residents using have also initiated use during residency. Side effects are commonly reported for both of these agents, and long-term safety remains unclear.
-
As the specialty of emergency medicine (EM) continues to evolve in countries around the world, and as interest in international emergency medicine (IEM) continues to grow within the United States, the IEM Literature Review Group recognizes a need for a high-quality, consolidated, and easily accessible evidence base of literature. In response to that need, the group created an annual publication that strives to provide readers with access to the highest quality and most relevant IEM research. ⋯ Articles were selected for the review according to explicit, predetermined criteria that include both methodologic quality and perceived impact of the research. It is our hope that this annual review will act as a forum for disseminating best practices while also stimulating further research in the field of IEM.
-
Comparative Study
Using a discrete-event simulation to balance ambulance availability and demand in static deployment systems.
To improve ambulance response time, matching ambulance availability with the emergency demand is crucial. To maintain the standard of 90% of response times within 9 minutes, the authors introduce a discrete-event simulation method to estimate the threshold for expanding the ambulance fleet when demand increases and to find the optimal dispatching strategies when provisional events create temporary decreases in ambulance availability. ⋯ Strategies of capacity management based on this model improved response times. The more ambulances that are out of routine duty, the better the performance of the optimal strategies that are based on this model.