Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
The receipt of remote clinical care for children via telecommunications (pediatric telemedicine) appears to improve access to and quality of care in U.S. emergency departments (EDs), but the actual prevalence and characteristics of pediatric telemedicine receipt remain unclear. We determined the prevalence and current applications of pediatric telemedicine in U.S. EDs, focusing on EDs that received telemedicine from clinicians at other facilities. ⋯ Few EDs receive telemedicine for the delivery of pediatric emergency care nationally. Among EDs that do use telemedicine for pediatric care, many report process concerns. Addressing these barriers through focused education or interventions may support EDs in further developing and optimizing this technological adjunct to pediatric emergency care.
-
Emergency care providers share a compelling interest in developing an effective patient-centered, outcomes-based research agenda that can decrease variability in pediatric outcomes. The 2018 Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference "Aligning the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Research Agenda to Reduce Health Outcome Gaps (AEMCC)" aimed to fulfill this role. ⋯ Topics that were explored and deliberated through subcommittee breakout sessions led by content experts included 1) pediatric emergency medical services research, 2) pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) research network collaboration, 3) PEM education for emergency medicine providers, 4) workforce development for PEM, and 5) enhancing collaboration across emergency departments (PEM practice in non-children's hospitals). The work product of this conference is a research agenda that aims to identify areas of future research, innovation, and scholarship in PEM.
-
D-dimer is used to aid in diagnosing adult pulmonary embolism (PE). D-dimer has not been validated in adolescents. Clinicians must balance the risk of overtesting with that of a missed PE. D-dimer may be useful in this context. This study evaluates D-dimer in PE-positive and PE-negative adolescents. ⋯ This study represents the largest available cohort of adolescent patients examining the diagnostic value of D-dimer for PE. Our results indicate that depending on the threshold selected, D-dimer can be a sensitive test for PE in adolescents and that discriminative value is higher for a cutoff of 750 ng/mL than that for 500 ng/mL. Prospective studies investigating the diagnostic value of D-dimer and a clinical decision rule for PE in pediatrics are needed.