Internal medicine journal
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Internal medicine journal · Sep 2021
Multicenter StudyMedical student knowledge and critical appraisal of machine learning: a multicentre international cross-sectional study.
To utilise effectively tools that employ machine learning (ML) in clinical practice medical students and doctors will require a degree of understanding of ML models. To evaluate current levels of understanding, a formative examination and survey was conducted across three centres in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Of the 245 individuals who participated in the study (response rate = 45.4%), the majority had difficulty with identifying weaknesses in model performance analysis. Further studies examining educational interventions addressing such ML topics are warranted.
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Internal medicine journal · Sep 2021
"Concerns and Psychological Wellbeing of Health Care Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Tertiary Care Hospital in NSW".
In early 2020, the impending COVID-19 pandemic placed a once-in-a-generation professional and personal challenge on healthcare workers. Publications on direct physical disease abound. The authors wanted to focus on doctors' psychological well-being. ⋯ Both COVID-19 specific concerns and psychological well-being improved greatly in the second survey. Possible explanations are the fall in COVID-19 cases in the district, improvements in PPE supply and supportive measures communicated to doctors during this period.
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Internal medicine journal · Sep 2021
Alcohol Misuse and Critical Care Admissions in the Northern Territory.
The Northern Territory (NT) has a long history of heavy alcohol consumption with a correspondingly high attributable morbidity and mortality. ⋯ Alcohol misuse is associated with a substantial number of critical care admissions and consumes considerable acute care resources. Further policy directed at harm minimisation and epidemiological work at jurisdictional and national level is necessary.
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Internal medicine journal · Sep 2021
Observational StudyAn Observational Study of the Incidence and Factors Associated with Patient Readmission from Home Based Care Under the Hospital in the Home Program.
Hospital in the Home (HITH) provides home-based care by hospital staff, which reduces inpatient length of stay and promotes a better quality of life. The frequency and precipitants for readmission from HITH back to the acute inpatient service are currently poorly defined. ⋯ Older age and greater comorbidity increased the odds of readmission, but patients from the ED were low risk compared to inpatient referrals.
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Internal medicine journal · Sep 2021
Practical ethical challenges and moral distress among staff in a hospital COVID-19 screening service.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented disruptions to established models of healthcare and healthcare delivery, creating a host of new ethical challenges for healthcare institutions, their leadership and their staff. Hospitals and other large organisations have an obligation to understand and recognise the downstream effects that highly unusual situations and professionally demanding policy may have on workers tasked with its implementation, in order to institute risk-mitigation strategies and provide additional support where required. In our experience, targeted ethics-based forums that provide a non-confrontational platform to discuss and explore the ethical dilemmas that may have arisen have been well received, and can also serve as useful and immediate feedback mechanisms to managers and leadership. Using two case illustrations, this article examines some of the ethical challenges and dilemmas faced by these staff, based on discussions of shared experience during a clinical ethics forum for the Screening Clinic staff at Austin Health, Melbourne, Victoria.