Emergency Medicine/Critical Care Medicine (EM/CCM) Trainees’ Performance on Standardized Critical Care Medicine Examinations: A Ten-Year Review

BackgroundEmergency Medicine/Critical Care Medicine (EM/CCM) trainees may obtain board certification through Internal Medicine (American Board of Internal Medicine [ABIM]), Surgery (American Board of Surgery [ABS]), and Anesthesiology (American Board of Anesthesiology [ABA]). However, EM/CCM trainees experience challenges, including: 1) additional training requirements and 2) an unwillingness to accept EM graduates by many programs.ObjectivesWe sought to: 1) compare EM/CCM knowledge acquisition to medicine (Internal Medicine [IM]/CCM), surgery (surgical critical care [SCC]), and anesthesiology (anesthesiology critical care medicine [ACCM]) Fellows at the local and national level using the Multidisciplinary Critical Care Knowledge Assessment Program (MCCKAP) in-service examination as an objective measure; and 2) compare American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) pass rates for EM/CCM.MethodsSingle-center retrospective analysis comparing scores obtained by EM/CCM on the MCCKAP examination with SCC and ACCM over a 10-year period. Scores are presented as means with standard deviations. We performed similar analysis on ABMS examination pass rates.ResultsThere were 117 MCCKAP scores (37 EM/CCM; 80 SCC and ACCM) evaluated. EM/CCM mean score 562.4 (SD 67.4); SCC and ACCM mean score 505.3, (SD 87.5) at the institutional level (p < 0.001). Similarly, EM/CCM scored higher than the national mean (562.4, SD 67.4 vs. 500 SD 100, p < 0.001). Nationally, ABIM-CCM board certification rate was 91.2% for 137 EM/CCM, compared with 93.2% for IM/CCM (p = 0.22); 28 EM/CCM have obtained ABA-CCM board certification with rates similar to ACCM (90.4 vs. 89.3%; p = 0.85).ConclusionsEM/CCM Fellows demonstrate successful knowledge acquisition both locally and at a national level. EM/CCM achieve ABMS pass rates similar to other CCM trainees. The current arbitrary additional training requirements placed on EM/CCM should be removed.     

Major incidents

A major incident is one that causes casualties on a scale beyond the usual capabilities of the emergency and healthcare services usual ability to manage. Major incident planning and rehearsal is vital to ensuring an appropriate response. Delivery of a major incident response requires command and co-ordination within and between emergency services, hospitals and specialist charitable organizations. Casualty management will require the set up of major incident infrastructure on scene to effectively extricate, triage, treat and transport casualties to appropriate facilities. There is a role for specialist doctors within the pre-hospital phase of managing a major incident, either within the ambulance command structure or operationally. Debrief and reviewing previous major incidents may identify individual, local and systemic factors that could be altered to improve the response to a future incident.     

国医大师王琦教授中医体质学理论在疼痛性疾病诊疗中的临床应用

慢性疼痛涉及临床各科的多种疾病，包括一些重大疾病和疑难疾病。中医体质学是中医学的新兴学科，其体质分类、体病相关思想以及“辨体论治”的诊疗方法已广泛应用到临床各科疾病的诊疗中。文章探讨了以中医体质学思想指导疼痛性疾病诊疗的若干理论问题，认为疼痛性疾病的发生与患者体质类型存在密切的关系。因此，在临床辨治疼痛性疾病时要考虑患者体质因素。所施方药不仅要符合病证特点，也要针对患者体质类型。并列举国医大师王琦教授辨体论治慢性前列腺炎盆腔疼痛综合征、偏头痛、过敏性头痛等疼痛性疾病的案例加以分析，以期为相关领域同仁提供参考。     

Cosmic Experiments: Remaking Materialism and Daoist Ethic “Outside of the Establishment”

ABSTRACT

In this article, I discuss recent experiments in ‘classical’ (gudian) Chinese medicine. As the marketization and privatization of health care deepens and enters uncharted territories in China, a cohort of young practitioners and entrepreneurs have begun their quest for the ‘primordial spirit’ of traditional Chinese medicine by setting up their own businesses where they engage in clinical, pedagogical, and entrepreneurial practices outside of state-run institutions. I argue that these explorations in classical Chinese medicine, which focus on classical texts and Daoist analytics, do not aim to restore spirituality to the scientized and secularized theory of traditional Chinese medicine. Nor are they symptomatic of withdrawals from the modern world. Rather, these ‘cosmic experiments’ need to be understood in relation to dialectical and historical materialisms as modes of knowledge production and political alliance. In challenging the status of materialist theory and the process of theorization in traditional Chinese medicine and postsocialist life more broadly speaking, advocates of classical Chinese medicine imagine nondialectical materialisms as immanent ways of thinking, doing, and being in the world.     

PBL教学法在核医学课间实习教学中的应用研究

目的 通过与LBL教学法对比,探讨PBL教学法在核医学科课间实习教学中的应用效果.方法 选取哈尔滨医科大学2016级临床医学专业本科二班学生72人,随机分为实验组和对照组,每组各36人,在课间实习教学中分别实施PBL教学法和LBL教学法.实习结束后,通过考试及问卷调查,进行教学法评价.结果 观察组在考试成绩、学习兴趣、学习热情、教学满意度、培养临床思维、增强知识点掌握等教学法评价指标均优于对照组,具有统计学意义(P<0.05).结论 与LBL教学法相比,PBL教学法应用于核医学科课间实习教学中更能激发学生学习兴趣、增强综合素质,从而提高教学效果.     

小儿豉翘清热颗粒治疗疱疹性咽峡炎临床研究

目的:观察小儿豉翘清热颗粒治疗疱疹性咽峡炎的临床疗效及安全性。方法:选取79例疱疹性咽峡炎患儿,随机分为对照组39例和治疗组40例,对照组常规给予利巴韦林气雾剂治疗,治疗组使用小儿豉翘清热颗粒联合利巴韦林气雾剂治疗。比较2组患儿临床症状、体征消失时间,观察2组总体疗效及用药安全性。结果:与对照组比较,治疗后治疗组症状体征恢复时间均更短,总体疗效更优,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。2组患儿用药期间不良反应发生情况比较,差异无统计学意义(P>0.05)。结论:小儿豉翘清热颗粒联合利巴韦林气雾剂治疗小儿疱疹性咽峡炎,可缩短临床症状、体征消失的时间,增加总疗效率且不增加药物不良反应,比传统抗病毒治疗更加有效。     

Pregnant women’s use and attitude toward herbal,vitamin, and mineral supplements in an academic tertiary care center,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background

Herbal medicine has been widely utilized by pregnant women despite the limited available evidence regarding the safety and efficacy of that practice. The current available studies, from different countries, estimated that the use of herbal medicine during pregnancy range from 7% up to 96%. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence, attitude, source of information, and reasoning behind the use of herbal medicine among pregnant women in Saudia Arabia.

壮医龙盘止咳方治疗小儿急性支气管炎风热犯肺证30例临床观察

目的:观察壮医龙盘止咳方治疗小儿急性支气管炎风热犯肺证的临床疗效。方法:选取60例急性支气管炎风热犯肺证的患儿,将其随机分为2组,每组各30例。治疗组采用壮医龙盘止咳方治疗,对照组予小儿宣肺止咳颗粒治疗,治疗5d后观察2组患儿的疗效、白介素-4(IL-4)和干扰素-γ(INF-γ)含量的变化情况,并进行中医证候评分。结果:总有效率治疗组为89.66%(26/29),对照组为76.67%(23/30),2组比较,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05);治疗组治疗后IL-4高于对照组,INF-γ及中医证候积分均低于对照组,各项指标组间比较,差异均有统计学意义(P<0.05)。结论:壮医龙盘止咳方治疗小儿急性支气管炎风热犯肺证疗效显著,值得推广应用。     

The Geriatrician: The Frontline Specialist in the Treatment of COVID-19 Patients

On February 20, 2020, a man living in the north of Italy was admitted to the emergency room with an atypical pneumonia that later proved to be COVID-19. This was the trigger of one of the most serious clusters of COVID-19 in the world, outside of China. Despite aggressive restraint and inhibition efforts, COVID-19 continues to increase, and the total number of infected patients in Italy is growing daily. After 6 weeks, the total number of patients reached 128,948 cases (April 5, 2020), with the higher case-fatality rate (15,887 deaths) dominated by old and very old patients.This sudden health emergency severely challenged the Italian Health System, in particular acute care hospitals and intensive care units. In 1 hospital, geriatric observation units were created, the experience of which can be extremely useful for European countries, the United States, and all countries that in the coming days will face a similar situation.