Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Comparative Study
Performance of a population-based cardiac risk stratification tool in Asian patients with chest pain.
Most contemporary cardiac risk stratification tools have been derived and validated in mixed-race populations. Their validity in single-race populations has not been tested. The authors sought to compare the performance of a risk stratification tool between a mixed-race U.S. patient population and an Asian patient population. ⋯ Differences exist in presentation and factors associated with ACS among patients from the United States and Singapore that may affect the performance of risk stratification tools. These findings suggest that cardiac clinical decision rules need international validation.
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Disaster planning is a core curriculum requirement for emergency medicine (EM) residency programs. Few comprehensive training opportunities in disaster planning incorporating the appropriate competencies have been reported. ⋯ Emergency medicine residency programs can benefit from participating in high-quality medical disaster exercises coordinated with local disaster response agencies. Residents report high satisfaction and learning from realistic simulations of disasters, and from collaboration with other community services.
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Death notification is a common, difficult, and emotionally laden communication for emergency physicians. Teaching emergency medicine residents the skills for success in this communication is an important focus for educators. To accomplish this task, educators need practical, proven teaching and assessment tools focused on death notification skills. ⋯ This study demonstrates that a defined educational intervention focused on the GRIEV_ING mnemonic can improve physician confidence and competence in death notification.
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To determine whether ancillary tests of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), specifically, the total protein concentration, glucose concentration, and percent neutrophils, provide information for diagnosing acute bacterial meningitis among children with low white blood cell (WBC) count in CSF. ⋯ When markedly abnormal, results of CSF total protein concentration, glucose concentration, and percent neutrophils have value for diagnosing acute bacterial meningitis, even among children with a low WBC count in CSF.