AED’s in Schools

From the Dr. Wes blog
Just in time for the back-to-school season comes this report on the epidemiology of cardiac arrest in our schools.
The report adds much to our knowledge of the epidemiology of sudden death in schools from two large counties near Seattle, WA, USA. Of 3773 episodes of cardiac arrest in a public domain [...]

47 Million Uninsured

In a front-page article, the New York Times reports, “The nation’s median household income grew modestly in 2006, the Census Bureau reported yesterday, even as the percentage of people without health insurance hit a high.” Officials from the Census Bureau “attributed the rise in the uninsured — to 47 million from 44.8 million in 2005 [...]

The relationship between distance to hospital and patient mortality in emergencies: an observational study

From the Emergency Medicine Journal
ABSTRACTObjectives: Reconfiguration of emergency services could lead to patients with life-threatening conditions travelling longer distances to hospital. Concerns have been raised that this could increase the risk of death. We aimed to determine whether distance to hospital was associated with mortality in patients with life-threatening emergencies.
Methods: We undertook an observational [...]

Capnometry in the prehospital setting: are we using its potential?

From the Emergency Medicine Journal:
Capnometry is a non-invasive monitoring technique which allows fast and reliable insight into ventilation, circulation, and metabolism. In the prehospital setting it is mainly used to confirm correct tracheal tube placement. In addition it is a useful indicator of efficient ongoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation due to its correlation with cardiac output, and [...]

Medical Statistics Made Simple

From Medical Economics
Medical Studies: What You Need to Know
Americans are bombarded with news of medical breakthroughs every day. How can you judge which deserve your attention? The most meaningful studies are well-designed, include hundreds of patients similar to you (in age, sex, race, and stage of disease), and have clear, dramatic results.
Consider these results with [...]

Fast Relief, and Simple

From Surgeon’s Blog:
…the subject was a simple procedure bringing rapid and dramatic relief, commenters have mentioned other similar interventions. Seems like a fun topic. Here’s a list I can think of (a couple of which are those mentioned in the comments, by readers.) Anyone want to chime in with others?
Giving “Narcan” to an overdose patient: [...]

Pain medicine use has nearly doubled

From Yahoo News:
The amount of five major painkillers sold at retail establishments rose 90 percent between 1997 and 2005, according to an Associated Press analysis of statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
More than 200,000 pounds of codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and meperidine were purchased at retail stores during the most recent year represented in the [...]

Medicare to Stop Pay for Hospital Errors

From AOL News:
In a significant policy change, Bush administration officials say that Medicare will no longer pay the extra costs of treating preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals, a move they say could save lives and millions of dollars.
Private insurers are considering similar changes, which they said could multiply the savings and [...]

Special Ambulance for Morbidly Obese Patients

From JEMS
SAVANNAH, Ga. – Southside Fire and EMS has added a special-order ambulance meant for very obese patients to its fleet of emergency vehicles.
It’s getting great business.
Southside is using the bariatric ambulance for anyone larger than 400 pounds. It has been used more than once a day since it was delivered [...]

Med student struggles to preserve her idealism

Great article from CNN.com
Learning how to practice medicine on this sort of a time-scale is stressful. But it’s totally necessary in order to properly train us for a world of health care in which the average physician visit is six minutes! When our professors went to medical school, they were taught the art of healing; [...]