Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Comparative Study
Surveillance of infectious disease occurrences in the community: an analysis of symptom presentation in the emergency department.
To determine the effectiveness of a simulated emergency department (ED)-based surveillance system to detect infectious disease (ID) occurrences in the community. ⋯ Surveillance of ED symptom presentation has the potential to identify clinically important ID occurrences in the community 24 hours prior to HD identification. Lack of weekend HD data collection suggests that the ED is a more appropriate setting for real-time ID surveillance.
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A national survey of emergency medicine (EM) residency program directors (PDs) was conducted to review training and evaluation of residents in electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation and to assess the attitudes of PDs toward establishing national criteria for ECG competency. ⋯ While a majority of EM residency programs surveyed have a formal curriculum for ECG interpretation, less than a fourth formally test their residents or require proof of competency. The majority of residency PDs oppose the development of a national ECG examination or competency requirement for graduation. Implementation of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education directive for the demonstration of clinical competencies will be challenging given the current position of PDs.
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The operations of an emergency department are increasingly being recognized as vital to the provision of safe, efficient, quality care. The numerous and highly variable processes that characterize our system must be closely examined and investigated to identify those which are effective and those which are not. Original research in this field should be promoted and embraced by our society for both our patients and our profession. Effective operational processes should ultimately be seen as those which preserve and enhance the patient-physician relationship.
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Practice Guideline Guideline
The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine position on optimizing care of the stroke patient.