Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To evaluate the achievement of women in academic emergency medicine (EM) relative to men. ⋯ These findings mirror those of most medical specialties: academic achievement of women in academic EM lags behind that of men. The paucity of minority physicians in academic EM didn't permit analysis of their academic achievements.
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Emergency departments (EDs) provide an opportunity to initiate preventive services for millions of Americans who have no other source for these services. ⋯ A set of recommendations for prevention, screening, and counseling activities in the ED based on systematic reviews of selected interventions is presented. The applicability of these primary and secondary preventive services will vary with the different clinical environments and resources available in EDs. The PHTF recommendations should not be used as the basis of curtailing currently available services. This review makes clear the need for further research in this important area.
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To determine whether patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with first-trimester pregnancy complications have a decreased length of stay (LOS) when a live intrauterine pregnancy (IUP) is diagnosed by emergency physicians (EPs). ⋯ Emergency physicians identifying live IUP with bedside ultrasonography significantly decreased patients' LOSs in the ED. The decrease in LOS was most apparent for patients presenting during evening and nighttime hours.
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To evaluate the utility of bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) in the out-of-hospital treatment of patients with presumed congestive heart failure (CHF). ⋯ ALS EMTs can be trained to deliver noninvasive ventilation with BiPAP, find it easy to apply, and believe that it helps relieve dyspnea in patients with suspected CHF.
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In 1998 the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine's (SAEM's) Board of Directors asked the SAEM Public Health and Education Task Force to develop recommendations for prevention, screening, and counseling activities to be conducted in emergency departments (EDs). The Task Force's work was divided into two phases: 1) a discussion of the rationale for preventive services in the ED, along with generation of a preliminary list of prevention activities that could be studied for ED implementation; and 2) a formal evidence-based review of topics chosen from the preliminary list, along with recommendations for ED implementation and further study. This paper represents Phase I of the project. Phase II, the formal evidence-based review and recommendations, is published separately in this issue.