Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
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To explore trends in the clinical activity of hospital specialists in English National Health Service (NHS) hospitals, and test the effect of contract reform. ⋯ Consultant clinical activity, as measured by FCEs per month, has shown a general downward trend from 1999 to 2009. The consultant contract was not associated with an increase in consultant clinical activity rates.
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Review Meta Analysis
A systematic review and meta-analysis of the cardioprotective effects of remote ischaemic preconditioning in open cardiac surgery.
To investigate the cardioprotective efficacy of remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) in cardiac surgery. ⋯ Although our analysis suggests RIPC may result in cardiac protection during cardiac surgery, the effect was most marked in studies without full blinding, with a smaller and statistically non-significant effect in fully blinded studies. We propose that further double blind randomized controlled trials investigating the cardioprotective effects of RIPC in cardiac surgery are required to resolve the current clinical uncertainty.