Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2015
Using lithium ion batteries in the aeromedical environment: A calculated risk?
Lithium ion batteries are increasingly utilised within helicopter emergency medical services. Their favourable chemical profile confers many desirable properties: they are small, lightweight and provide a high specific capacity (energy to weight ratio) coupled with a slow self-discharge rate, ensuring a longer functional availability for vital equipment. They are frequently used in routine medical equipment including ventilators, monitors and intravenous pumps, and in aviation specific items, such as satellite and mobile phones, VHF radios and navigation systems.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2015
Should external short courses be a compulsory part of ACEM specialty training? Yes.
Implementation of a series of mandatory short courses for ACEM trainees will necessitate clear pathways to accreditation, rigourous application of standards and demonstration by course providers of high-quality teaching of up-to-date practices. Trainees and their patients stand to reap wide-ranging benefits from these courses, which might also facilitate the transition to competency- (rather than time-) based training through the College. Completion by all trainees of compulsory courses will provide the community with clarity about the standards to which emergency physicians are trained and might result in improvements in patient outcomes – the very reason for our trainees' hard work and dedication.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2015
Comparative StudyParacetamol poisoning in adolescents in an Australian setting: Not quite adults.
To describe and compare the characteristics of paracetamol poisoning in adolescent and adult patients. ⋯ Adolescents ingested comparable amounts of paracetamol to adults, when presenting with deliberate self-poisoning. However, there were significant differences in co-ingested medications and the reason for ingestion of paracetamol. Histamine reactions to NAC were more common in adolescents; however, most were mild. Overall, outcome was favourable in both cohorts.