Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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Older participants are often excluded from clinical trials, precluding a representative sample. ⋯ Strategies, albeit unstudied, could assist investigators in planning surgical trials that successfully enroll and retain older women.
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We developed a prototype electronic clinical information system called the Surgical Intensive Care-Infection Registry (SIC-IR) to prospectively study infectious complications and monitor quality of care improvement programs in the surgical and trauma intensive care unit. The objective of this study was to validate SIC-IR as a successful health information technology with an accurate clinical data repository. ⋯ SIC-IR proved to be a useful application both at individual user and organizational levels and will serve as an accurate tool to conduct prospective research and monitor quality of care improvement programs.
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Tactical combat casualty care (TCCC) is a system of prehospital trauma care designed for the combat environment. Although widely adopted, very few studies have reported on how TCCC interventions are actually delivered on the battlefield, from a quality of care perspective. ⋯ Tourniquets save lives. Needle decompression can save lives, but is usually performed in patients with multiple critical injuries. TCCC instructors must reinforce proper techniques and indications for each procedure to ensure that the quality of care provided to injured soldiers on the battlefield remains high.