Claire Palermo et al. published in Nutrition and Dietetics.Read article here.
Tuesday, 23 January 2018
Evaluation of AJCC and an Alternative Tumor Classification System for Primary Vulvar Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Read article here.
Tuesday, 16 January 2018
Alcohol-related harm taking a toll in hospital emergency departments—more than half a million admissions each year
 |
| Associate Professor Egerton-Warburton |
A world-first research study investigating the burden of
alcohol harm has revealed that almost one in ten presentations to hospital
emergency departments is alcohol-related.
Led by Monash University researcher and Monash Health Director
of Emergency Medicine Research Associate Professor Diana Egerton-Warburton, the
first large-scale international, multisite, prospective study into the total
burden of alcohol harm presenting to emergency departments (EDs) shows the
burden is higher than previously thought.
Alcohol is a major cause of death and disability
internationally, resulting in an estimated 5.9% of all deaths.
Associate Professor Egerton-Warburton said alcohol-related
harm accounts for 3.3 million deaths annually and is also linked to over 200
diseases.
“EDs are at the frontline of treating the health and social
consequences of alcohol-related harm,” Associate Professor Egerton-Warburton
said.
“Our study is the first in the world to include the total
burden of alcohol-related harm, including physical injuries, intoxication,
medical conditions and indirect injuries caused by a third party affected by
alcohol.”
“It’s shocking that more than half a million people every
year present to our EDs in Australia as a direct result of alcohol—bearing in
mind these are preventable admissions.”
Eight hospital EDs across Australia and New Zealand—representing
metropolitan, rural and regional populations—screened nearly 8500 patients over
a seven-day period in December 2014. Of
these, 801 presentations (or 9.5%), were identified as being alcohol positive according
to the study criteria.
“These findings verify previous data that demonstrated high
levels of alcohol-related presentations overnight during weekends, but also
demonstrate that patients with alcohol-related conditions are presenting to EDs
at all times throughout the week,” Associate Professor Egerton-Warburton said.
Patients with alcohol-related harm are more likely to be
younger, male, be triaged for immediate care, and arrive via ambulance or
police.
Associate Professor Egerton-Warburton said these types of
patients are resource intensive, and may be violent and aggressive to staff and
other patients.
“They have been found to disrupt the function of the ED and
negatively impact on the care of other patients,” she said.
“Our previously published clinical survey found that nine
out of 10 emergency clinicians had experienced violence from alcohol-affected
patients over the last year.”
“Alcohol consumption has a significant impact on the
healthcare system as reflected in the prevalence of alcohol-related
presentations occurring daily in our EDs, and as alcohol-related harm is an
inherently preventable condition, this represents a strong case for
preventative public health interventions,” Associate Professor
Egerton-Warburton said.
“Restricting the availability of alcohol through early
closing of licenced venues has demonstrated a significant reduction in ED
alcohol-related presentations internationally.”
Associate Professor Egerton-Warburton said this research
adds to the compelling argument for widespread introduction of restricted
trading hours to reduce harms and healthcare costs.
Setting the priorities for paediatric emergency medicine research
 |
| Associate Professor Simon Craig |
Published in
the Emergency Medicine Journal and conducted through the
Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative
(PREDICT) network (www.predict.org.au), the research collaboration
includes all hospitals with major paediatric emergency departments across
Australia and New Zealand.
Monash
University researcher and Monash Health paediatric emergency medicine physician
Associate Professor Simon Craig was co-author on the study that surveyed
practising senior paediatric emergency physicians to identify priorities for
future research.
“We
identified a number of key areas which clinicians believe should be a focus for
acute paediatric research in the next few years: high flow oxygenation in
intubation, fluid volume resuscitation and vasopressor use in sepsis, imaging
in cervical spine injury, and intravenous therapy for asthma,” Associate
Professor Craig said.
“These topics
are relevant to clinicians practicing anywhere in the world, and have been
independently identified by similar studies in the UK, Ireland and North
America. Given the nature of paediatric emergency medicine, we are likely to need
global collaboration to answer these research questions.”
Associate
Professor Craig said there have been concerns raised regarding research waste, either
through poor design, lack of publication, or incomplete reporting.
“Crucially,
it has been estimated that around half of all research studies do not take into
account lessons and results from previous related research,” Associate
Professor Craig said.
“An
understanding of the research priorities for practicing clinicians allows us to
ensure that these topics are systematically examined to identify gaps in
evidence, and/or gaps in knowledge translation, prior to the design of future
trials.”
“Interestingly, we also identified a number of areas where practicing clinicians identified research questions which had already been answered by existing studies – either by clinical trials or systematic reviews. This highlights the importance of translating research knowledge into clinical practice which remains a challenge for acute paediatric care.”
“Interestingly, we also identified a number of areas where practicing clinicians identified research questions which had already been answered by existing studies – either by clinical trials or systematic reviews. This highlights the importance of translating research knowledge into clinical practice which remains a challenge for acute paediatric care.”
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