Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
The International Emergency Medicine (IEM) Literature Review aims to highlight and disseminate high-quality global EM research in the fields of EM development, disaster and humanitarian response, and emergency care in resource-limited settings. For this review, we conducted a Medline search for articles published between January 1 and December 31, 2010, using a set of international and EM search terms and a manual search of journals that have produced large numbers of IEM articles for past reviews. This search produced 6,936 articles, which were divided among 20 reviewers who screened them using established inclusion and exclusion criteria to select articles relevant to the field of IEM. ⋯ The articles this year trended toward evidence-based research for treatment and care options in resource-limited settings, with an emphasis on childhood illness and obstetric care. These articles represent examples of high-quality international emergency research that is currently ongoing in high-, middle-, and low-income countries alike. This article is not intended to serve as a systematic review or clinical guideline but is instead meant to be a selection of current high-quality IEM literature, with the hope that it will foster further growth in the field, highlight evidence-based practice, and encourage discourse.
-
Emergency medicine (EM) is a young but rapidly growing field. An evaluation of academic performance and the growing impact of EM journals would help to elucidate the increase in the number of EM scientific studies. The authors used the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) database to investigate the scientific achievements of EM journals in the past 10 years. ⋯ An increasing number of international EM journals have appeared over the past 10 years. Every EM journal exhibited a positive impact factor trend, but the gap between EM journals' impact factors has widened in the past 10 years.
-
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has recommended the development of national standards for the measurement of emergency care performance. The authors undertook this study with the goals of enumerating and categorizing existing performance measures relevant to pediatric emergency care. ⋯ A wide range of performance measures relevant to pediatric emergency care are available. However, measures lack a systematic and comprehensive approach to evaluate the quality of care provided.
-
Despite consensus regarding the conceptual foundation of crowding, and increasing research on factors and outcomes associated with crowding, there is no criterion standard measure of crowding. The objective was to conduct a systematic review of crowding measures and compare them in conceptual foundation and validity. ⋯ Time intervals and patient counts are emerging as the most promising tools for measuring flow and nonflow (i.e., crowding), respectively. Standardized definitions of time intervals (flow) and numerical counts (nonflow) will assist with validation of these metrics across multiple sites and clarify which options emerge as the metrics of choice in this "crowded" field of measures.
-
The authors sought to determine the diagnostic test characteristics of bedside emergency physician (EP)-performed ultrasound (US) for cholelithiasis in symptomatic emergency department (ED) patients. ⋯ This study suggests that in patients presenting to the ED with pain consistent with biliary colic, a positive EUS scan may be used to arrange for appropriate outpatient follow-up if symptoms have resolved. In patients with a low pretest probability, a negative EUS scan should prompt the clinician to consider an alternative diagnosis.