Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2019
Multicenter Study Observational StudyTreatment and outcome of adult patients with acute asthma in emergency departments in Australasia, South East Asia and Europe: Are guidelines followed? AANZDEM/EuroDEM study.
Asthma exacerbations are common presentations to ED. Key guideline recommendations for management include administration of inhaled bronchodilators, systemic corticosteroids and titrated oxygen therapy. Our aim was to compare management and outcomes between patients treated for asthma in Europe (EUR) and South East Asia/Australasia (SEA) and compliance with international guidelines. ⋯ The data suggests that compliance with guideline-recommended therapy in both regions, particularly corticosteroid administration, is sub-optimal. It also suggests over-use of antibiotics.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2019
Animal-vehicle collisions in Victoria, Australia: An under-recognised cause of road traffic crashes.
Non-fatal injuries sustained from animal-vehicle collisions are a globally under-recognised road safety issue, with limited data on these crash types. The present study aimed to quantify the number and causes of major trauma events resulting from animal-vehicle collisions. ⋯ Development of systematic recording methods of animal-vehicle collisions will improve reporting of these crash types to assist future studies in implementing effective countermeasures.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2019
Daring to be wise: We are black boxes, and artificial intelligence will be the solution.
Emergency physicians seek wisdom through personal resilience, deliberate reasoning, clinical consensus and reflective practice. However, there is a limit to how useful psychological training, clinical guidelines and audit initiatives can be in the face of inherent human fallibility, increasing system complexity and escalating demand. Wisdom may be more easily attained through the careful design of new technology and this should be a priority for the emergency medicine community.