Placebo Plus Usual Treatment Achieves Clinically Significant Back Pain Relief

A placebo of a pill added to treatment as usual for chronic low back pain resulted in clinically significant improvements in patients who were informed about the placebo beforehand, according to a new study from Portugal. All... read more

Utility and diagnostic accuracy of bedside lung ultrasonography during MET activations for respiratory deterioration

We investigated the feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of lung ultrasonography during medical emergency team (MET) activations for respiratory deterioration. The ultrasound exam was completed in 49/50 (98%) patients enrolled... read more

Addition of vitamin B12 to exercise training improves cycle ergometer endurance in advanced COPD patients

Vitamin B12 is essential in the homocysteine, mitochondrial, muscle and hematopoietic metabolisms, and its effects on exercise tolerance and kinetics adjustments of oxygen consumption (V'O2p) in rest-to-exercise transition... read more

Perceived safety and value of inpatient "very important person" services

Providing care to "very important person" (VIP) patients can pose unique moral and value-based challenges for providers. No studies have examined VIP services in the inpatient setting. Through a multi-institutional... read more

Vitamin C and the Ethics of Borrowing data

I was recently amazed to be engaged in a Twitter kerfuffle which generated more than 10,000 Impressions within 24 hours. Passions were running high, libellous comments were being broadcast, and old friendships seemed to be... read more

A patient and family initiated rapid response system

Rapid response teams (RRTs) help in delivering safe, timely care. Typically they are activated by clinicians using specific parameters. Allowing patients and families to activate RRTs is a novel intervention. 240 patients/family... read more

Quantifying the Mortality Impact of Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders in the ICU

Do-not-resuscitate status is an independent risk factor for ICU mortality. This may reflect severity of illness not captured by other clinical factors, but the perceptions of the treating team related to do-not-resuscitate... read more

Perceptions of the Appropriateness of Care in California Adult ICUs

Increased demand for expensive intensive care unit (ICU) services may contribute to rising health-care costs. A focus on appropriate use may offer a clinically meaningful way of finding the balance. Thirty-eight percent of... read more

Doctor Turns Up Possible Treatment For Deadly Sepsis

It is hard not to get excited about news of a potentially effective treatment for sepsis, a condition that leads to multiple organ failure and kills more people in the hospital than any other disease. The study, from Eastern... read more

Management of COPD exacerbations: a European Respiratory Society/American Thoracic Society guideline

This document provides clinical recommendations for treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation. This recommendation places a high value on improving clinical outcomes and a lower value on the burden... read more

The Current State of Glycaemic Control Practice

Study involving intensivists from 90 ICUs in northwest Europe confirms significant variability in glycaemic control practices. The study confirmed that there are still controversies over what constitutes optimal glucose management... read more

Priority Levels in Intensive Care at an Academic Public Hospital

This prospective study of medical records determined the proportion of medical ICU patients in each priority group within a tertiary care academic public hospital. Critical care services can be life-saving, but many patients... read more

Why physician mindfulness could improve patient care and prevent health care disparities

Most recently, we hypothesized that mindfulness might have even further benefits for patients, in terms of reducing racial and ethnic inequalities in care. Studies have shown health care providers hold implicit racial and... read more

Efficacy of Oral Risperidone, Haloperidol, or Placebo for Symptoms of Delirium Among Patients in Palliative Care

In patients receiving palliative care, individualized management of delirium precipitants and supportive strategies result in lower scores and shorter duration of target distressing delirium symptoms than when risperidone... read more

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

Moderate Exercise and Oxygen Consumption in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

This randomized clinical trial assesses whether moderate-intensity exercise training, compared with usual activity, improves exercise capacity in adults with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. During a 5-year period, 728 adult... read more

The ICM research agenda on ICU-acquired weakness

Intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired weakness (ICUAW) develops as a complication of critical illness and may represent the extreme end of a spectrum of weakness that begins with any serious illness regardless of care location.... read more

Preadmission Oral Corticosteroids Are Associated With Reduced Risk of ARDS in Critically Ill Adults With Sepsis

The unadjusted occurrence rate of acute respiratory distress syndrome within 96 hours of ICU admission was 35% among patients who had received oral corticosteroids compared with 42% among those who had not (p = 0.107). In... read more

Decision Making Model Enables Resolution of Ethics Issues at the Bedside

A study from Switzerland that evaluated implementation of a stepped ethical decision-making model on three intensive care units (ICUs) and two geriatric wards found that it worked well, with staff able to find the time and... read more

Presentations of adult septic patients in the prehospital setting as recorded by emergency medical services

The most common keywords related to septic patients’ symptom presentation were: abnormal/ suspected abnormal temperature (64.1.%), pain (38.4%), acute altered mental status (38.2%), weakness of the legs (35.1%), breathing... read more

Recovery after Acute Kidney Injury

Little is known about how acute kidney injury (AKI) resolves, and whether patterns of reversal of renal dysfunction differ among patients with respect to ultimate recovery. We have identified five distinct recovery phenotypes... read more

An Educational Intervention Optimizes the Use of Arterial Blood Gas Determinations Across ICUs

The large scale implementation of guidelines for ABG use reduced the number of inappropriately ordered ABG determinations over seven different multidisciplinary ICUs, without negatively impacting patient care. We saw a reduction... read more