Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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This systematic review identified and assessed psychometric properties of the available screening tools to identify patients with unmet palliative care (PC) needs in the emergency department (ED). ⋯ This review identified 14 unique screening tools used to identify adult patients with unmet PC needs in the ED. One screening tool, the SQ, was found to have moderate sensitivity and specificity to accurately predict future patient mortality. Additional research is needed to better understand the clinical value of this and the other available tools prior to their widespread implementation.
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Since its founding in 1989, the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) has accepted thousands of abstracts for presentation at its annual meeting. We reviewed abstracts to characterize temporal changes in study design, abstract topics, quality scores, and proportion of abstracts published as manuscripts. ⋯ Over the past 30 years, there have been significant changes to the study designs, topics, and quality scores of SAEM meeting abstracts. However, conversion of abstracts to published manuscripts remains a challenge.
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The objective was to identify the most important and impactful peer-reviewed global emergency medicine (GEM) articles published in 2021. The top articles are summarized in brief narratives and accompanied by a comprehensive list of all identified articles that address the topic during the year to serve as a reference for clinicians, researchers, and policy makers. ⋯ The GEM peer-reviewed literature continued to grow at a fast rate in 2021, reflecting the continued expansion and maturation of this subspecialty of emergency medicine. Few high-quality articles focused on DHR and EMD, suggesting a need for further efforts in those fields. Future efforts should focus on improving the diversity of GEM research and equitable representation.
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Pragmatic clinical trials (PCTs) focus on correlation between treatment and outcomes in real-world clinical practice, yet a guide highlighting key study considerations and design types for emergency medicine investigators pursuing this important study type is not available. Investigators conducting emergency department (ED)-based PCTs face multiple decisions within the planning phase to ensure robust and meaningful study findings. ⋯ The authors additionally highlight the advantages, disadvantages, and rationale for the use of four common randomized study design types to be considered in PCTs: parallel, crossover, factorial, and stepped-wedge. With increasing emphasis on the conduct of PCTs, emergency medicine investigators will benefit from a rigorous approach to clinical trial design.
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Hemoptysis is not common in pulmonary embolism (PE) and lacks specificity for its diagnosis. However, this item is present in different validated scores that estimate the clinical probability of PE. The relevance of this item in clinical decision rules (CDRs) is not clearly established. ⋯ The hemoptysis item could be safely removed from the PERC, YEARS, and PEGeD CDRs. However, there was no subsequent clinically relevant reduction of chest imaging.