Can J Emerg Med
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Survey of emergency physicians' requirements for a clinical decision rule for acute respiratory illnesses in three countries.
ABSTRACTObjective:There are currently no widely used guidelines to determine which older patients with acute respiratory conditions require hospital admission. This study assessed the need for clinical decision rules to help determine whether hospital admission is required for patients over 50 years for three common respiratory conditions: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart failure (HF), and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). ⋯ EPs are likely to adopt highly sensitive clinical decision rules to predict the need for hospital admission for patients over 50 years with COPD, HF, or CAP.
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Comparative Study
Perceptions of graduates from Africa's first emergency medicine training program at the University of Cape Town/Stellenbosch University.
Africa's first postgraduate training program in emergency medicine (EM) was established at the University of Cape Town/Stellenbosch University (UCT/SUN) in 2004. This study of the UCT/SUN EM program investigated the backgrounds, perceptions, and experiences of its graduates. ⋯ The lessons identified from structured interviews with graduates from Africa's first EM training include the importance of strong clinical training, difficulty of ensuring bedside teaching in a new program, the necessity of ensuring postgraduation positions, and the need for academic training. These findings may be useful for other developing countries looking to start EM training programs.
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Do specific elements of the history and physical examination predict the presence of pulmonary embolism in the emergency department? ⋯ To determine whether implicit clinical predictors previously untested predict the presence of pulmonary embolism in the emergency department.