Serial Procalcitonin Predicts Mortality in Severe Sepsis Patients

Serial Procalcitonin Predicts Mortality in Severe Sepsis Patients

Objectives: To prospectively validate that the inability to decrease procalcitonin levels by more than 80% between baseline and day 4 is associated with increased 28-day all-cause mortality in a large sepsis patient population... read more

Identifying barriers to delivering the ABCDE bundle to minimize adverse outcomes for mechanically ventilated patients

Identifying barriers to delivering the ABCDE bundle to minimize adverse outcomes for mechanically ventilated patients

Improved outcomes are associated with the Awakening, Breathing Coordination, Delirium and Early mobility/exercise (ABCDE) bundle; however, implementation issues are common. As yet, no study has integrated the barriers to... read more

Manual vs. Integrated Automatic Load-distributing Band CPR with Equal Survival after out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Manual vs. Integrated Automatic Load-distributing Band CPR with Equal Survival after out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Between March 5, 2009 and January 11, 2011 a randomized, unblinded, controlled group sequential trial of adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrests of presumed cardiac origin was conducted at three US and two European sites. After... read more

Nursing Informatics Continues To Grow, Survey Finds

Nursing Informatics Continues To Grow, Survey Finds

As healthcare adopts technology at all levels of care, the industry has been turning to nursing informatics specialists to help improve efficiency, boost patient outcomes, and reduce errors. As Health IT Outcomes reported,... read more

Early, Goal-Directed Therapy for Septic Shock

Early, Goal-Directed Therapy for Septic Shock

After a single-center trial and observational studies suggesting that early, goal-directed therapy (EGDT) reduced mortality from septic shock, three multicenter trials (ProCESS, ARISE, and ProMISe) showed no benefit. This... read more

New AAMC Research Reaffirms Looming Physician Shortage

New AAMC Research Reaffirms Looming Physician Shortage

The United States will face a shortage of between 40,800 and 104,900 physicians by 2030, according to a new study commissioned by the AAMC. Released March 14, 2017, the study found that the numbers of new primary care physicians... read more

The Role of Intensive Care Registries

The Role of Intensive Care Registries

To develop, implement, evaluate and sustain a quality improvement programme in the ICU is an important and demanding undertaking. The work can be made easier by joining an intensive care registry. Mature registries have resources... read more

High rate of depression and suicidal thoughts among medical students

High rate of depression and suicidal thoughts among medical students

A review and analysis of nearly 200 studies involving 129,000 medical students in 47 countries found that the prevalence of depression or depressive symptoms was 27 percent, that 11 percent reported suicidal thoughts during... read more

Dexmedetomidine Use in Critically-Ill Children with Acute Respiratory Failure

Margaret Parker, MD, MCCM, speaks with Mary Jo C. Grant, APRN, PhD, about the article, "Dexmedetomidine Use in Critically-Ill Children with Acute Respiratory Failure," published in the December 2016 issue of Pediatric... read more