Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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The objective was to describe epidemiologic features and usage patterns of pediatric emergency medical services (EMS) transports in Kansas City, Missouri. ⋯ Children in zip codes with lower incomes, infants, and males were more likely to use EMS. Factors related to these increased transport rates are unknown.
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The authors hypothesized that unethical recruiting practices and illegal questioning occur during emergency medicine (EM) resident recruitment. The objectives were to estimate the prevalence of specific unethical recruiting practices and illegal questioning by EM programs based on the perceptions of residency applicants and to measure the effect of these perceptions on applicant appraisal of programs. ⋯ These results demonstrate that among survey respondents, some perceived unethical recruiting behaviors and illegal questioning in the 2005 and 2006 Match. Perceptions of such behaviors appeared to have a negative impact on applicant appraisal of EM residency programs.
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The objective was to assess paramedic and emergency medical technicians (EMT) perspectives and decision-making after a policy change that allows forgoing or halting resuscitation in prehospital atraumatic cardiac arrest. ⋯ Participants view the ability to forgo or halt resuscitation in the field as empowering and do not believe it presents harm to patients or families under most circumstances. Factors other than patient clinical characteristics, such as knowledge and attitudes toward the policy, family emotional preparedness, and location of arrest, affect whether paramedics will implement it.
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Multicenter Study
The incremental benefit of a shortness-of-breath biomarker panel in emergency department patients with dyspnea.
The objective was to determine the incremental benefit of a shortness-of-breath (SOB) point-of-care biomarker panel on the diagnostic accuracy of emergency department (ED) patients presenting with dyspnea. ⋯ The addition of the SOB panel of markers did not improve the AUC for diagnosing the combined set of clinical conditions. Using the disease-specific SOB biomarkers increased the sensitivity on a disease-by-disease basis; however, specificity was reduced.