Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Comparative Study
The effects of octylcyanoacrylate on scarring after burns.
To compare the effects of octylcyanoacrylate (OCA), silver sulfadiazine (SSD), polyurethane film (PU), and dry gauze (G) on scarring three months after partial-thickness burns. ⋯ The effects of OCA spray, SSD, PU, and dry gauze on scarring three months after burns in pigs are similar.
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Financial support for graduate medical education (GME) is shrinking nationally as Medicare cuts GME funds. Thirty-nine hospitals in New York State (NYS) voluntarily participated in a Health Care Financing Administration demonstration project (HCFADP)-the goal of which was to reduce total residency training positions by 4-5%/year over a five-year period, while increasing primary care positions. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of downsizing on emergency department (ED) staffing and emergency medicine (EM) residency training. ⋯ A 4-5% reduction in residency positions was associated with a marked reduction in ED resident staffing and EM residency curriculum changes.
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Emergency medicine's (EM's) development as a specialty has spanned the last 25 years, with the first certifying examination administered by the American Board of Emergency Medicine in 1980. National census data project that the new millennium will bring a U. S. population that will be 40% minority. ⋯ The diversity of the patients we treat demonstrates the need for EM programs to diversify their faculty and residency staff. Strategies include expanding recruitment and supporting retention of underrepresented students, faculty, and trainees, addressing barriers that may exist for promotion of underrepresented women and minorities, mentoring underrepresented minority (URM) faculty in research and education, providing opportunities for URMs to advance in the field, and mentoring URMs at the junior high and high school levels in the sciences to expand the applicant pool in the field. The authors describe an academic EM program that is a model program for diversity within our specialty.
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Acute scrotal pain is not a rare emergency department (ED) complaint. Traditional reliance on medical history and physical examination can be precarious as signs and symptoms can overlap in various etiologies of acute scrotal pain. ⋯ This study suggests that EPs using bedside ultrasonography are able to accurately diagnose patients presenting with acute scrotal pain. In addition, they appear able to differentiate between surgical emergencies, such as testicular torsion, and other etiologies.
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Distracting painful injuries (DPIs) may mask symptoms of spinal injury in blunt trauma victims and form an important element in a decision instrument used to identify individuals who require cervical spine radiography. ⋯ A significant number of blunt trauma patients are believed by clinicians to have DPIs that can possibly mask the presence of cervical spinal injury. Fractures and trauma to soft tissues are the most common types of DPI.