Pharmacists Can Make a Difference During Influenza Pandemics

Since November 2015, approximately 25% of adults who receive annual seasonal influenza vaccination are immunized in pharmacies or retail health care settings. The growth in vaccine uptake at pharmacies has public health policy... read more

Dose-Adjusted DOACs: What Efficacy vs Warfarin?

The direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) offer distinct advantages over warfarin - among them, dose adjustment is only needed in cases of impaired renal function, advanced age, low body weight, or potential for drug-drug interactions.... read more

Longer hospital stays may reduce readmissions, study suggests

A recent study found patients moved to post-acute care facilities have a higher chance of readmission than those kept in the hospital for a longer period of time. Researchers say longer hospital stays may prevent readmission... read more

Stapled versus hand-sewn

Stapled versus hand-sewn: A prospective emergency surgery study. An American Association for the Surgery of Trauma multi-institutional study. Data from the trauma patient population suggests handsewn (HS) anastomoses are... read more

Evaluations of Male vs Female Emergency Medicine Residents Milestone Duiring Training

In this longitudinal, retrospective cohort study of 33 456 direct-observation evaluations from 8 emergency medicine training programs, we found that the rate of milestone attainment was higher for male residents throughout... read more

Glut of Anesthesia Guidelines a Disservice, Except for Lawyers

Anesthesia practice guidelines are out of control, too many to adopt, too anecdotal to accept and too political to take seriously! Clinicians are already ignoring and pushing back on guidelines. A study presented at the recent... read more

Palliative care from diagnosis to death

Evidence is growing that people can benefit from palliative care earlier in their illness, say Scott Murray and colleagues, but care must be tailored to different conditions. Many people still associate palliative care with... read more

The Changing Face of Informed Consent

Informed consent for a research study brings to mind a paper document with a handwritten signature completed at a clinical research site. However, the paper, ink, and clinical site are not necessary. Sufficient information... read more

Ketamine: A Drug at War with Itself

KETAMINE has always been the odd one out. Like an eccentric uncle who always turns up at the holiday season with a new partner, ketamine has never really comfortably fitted in to simple classifications of anesthetic drugs.... read more

Arterial Blood Gas: Time and Motion Study

Nursing workload using the Proxima versus standard arterial blood gas sampling Arterial Blood Gas (ABG) sampling is carried out in intensive care units (ICU) every day. Traditionally the nurse takes the blood sample and... read more

Tight Glycemic Control in Critically Ill Children

In multicenter studies, tight glycemic control targeting a normal blood glucose level has not been shown to improve outcomes in critically ill adults or children after cardiac surgery. Studies involving critically ill children... read more

Study Connects Maternal Response to Infection During Pregnancy with Increased Autism Risk

A new study adds to a growing body of research aimed at understanding how a mother’s body’s response to infection influences a growing fetus. In research published this week in mSphere, researchers at Columbia University... read more

Predicting HCAHPS scores from hospitals' social media pages

Social media is an important communication channel that can help hospitals and consumers obtain feedback about quality of care. However, despite the potential value of insight from consumers who post comments about hospital... read more

A Primer on the Perils of Intravenous Fluids – Part 2

Critically-ill patients all likely have endothelial dysfunction to some degree. resuscitationThis perturbation in microvascular physiology may be underpinned by abnormal glycocalyx structure and function. Sepsis, trauma,... read more

A Primer on the Perils of Intravenous Fluids – Part 1

The provision of intravenous fluids is no trivial intervention. Indeed, one eminent nephrologist has called for medical students to receive, not a 'white coat ceremony' at the outset of their education, but instead... read more

GERD Treatment May Reduce Healthcare Visits for Acute Respiratory Infections

Treatment with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) may help decrease healthcare visits for acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). These are the findings of a new study published... read more

Pain Assessment in INTensive care (PAINT)

Pain is a common and distressing symptom experienced by intensive care patients. Assessing pain in this environment is challenging, and published guidelines have been inconsistently implemented. The Pain Assessment in INTensive... read more

Major publications in the critical care pharmacotherapy literature

The Critical Care Pharmacotherapy Literature Update (CCPLU) Group is composed of over 50 experienced critical care pharmacists who evaluate 31 peer-reviewed journals monthly to identify literature pertaining to pharmacotherapy... read more

Transfusion in Critical Care – UK Regional Audit of Current Practice

A consistent message within critical care publications has been that a restrictive transfusion strategy is non-inferior, and possibly superior, to a liberal strategy for stable, non-bleeding critically ill patients. Translation... read more

Association of β-Blockers With Functional Outcomes After Acute Myocardial Infarction

This cohort study uses Minimum Data Set and Medicare claims data to assess the association of β-blocker use after acute myocardial infarction with functional decline, mortality, and rehospitalization among long-stay nursing... read more

Contrast-Induced Nephropathy: Confounding Causation

Comparing the methodological rigor of more recent CIN studies to those in the past, it seems clear that earlier studies purporting a causal relationship between AKI and contrast administration were only identifying an association... read more

High Levels of Nosocomial Infection Found in Pediatric ICUs

One in six children in pediatric intensive care units (pICU), and one in ten babies in neonatal intensive care units (nICU) develop a hospital-acquired infection (HAI), according to a new study. Researchers at the European... read more