Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Clinical Trial
R-wave amplitude in lead II of an electrocardiograph correlates with central hypovolemia in human beings.
Previous animal and human experiments have suggested that reduction in central blood volume either increases or decreases the amplitude of R waves in various electrocardiograph (ECG) leads depending on underlying pathophysiology. In this investigation, we used graded central hypovolemia in adult volunteer subjects to test the hypothesis that moderate reductions in central blood volume increases R-wave amplitude in lead II of an ECG. ⋯ These results support our hypothesis that reduction of central blood volume in human beings is associated with increased R-wave amplitude in lead II of an ECG.
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Effective clinical teaching in emergency departments (EDs) presents unique challenges. No validated approaches to enhancing ED teaching have been reported. The authors evaluated the effectiveness of a novel one-day evidence-based, skills-oriented faculty development course tailored to ED teachers (ED STAT!). ⋯ ED STAT! improves participants' knowledge about ED-specific teaching strategies, and this improvement is maintained at one month. Participants reported high satisfaction and a positive effect on teaching behavior.
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The findings are presented of a consensus group created to address the standardization of performance measures for emergency medicine. This group, whose members have affiliations with most major organizations interested in emergency medicine performance, benchmarking and quality improvement, was tasked with standardizing definitions pertinent to emergency department performance measures, creating a set of general and operational measures, developing a comparison system for benchmarking and creating a plan for the dissemination of this information. The formation of this group, the problem statement, and the mission statement for the summit are all described, and the consensus document is presented.