Publications

OBJECTIVE: To develop a scoring system that can assess the multidisciplinary management of respiratory failure in a pediatric ICU.

METHODS: In a single tertiary pediatric ICU we conducted a simulation-based evaluation in a patient care area auxiliary to the ICU. The subjects were pediatric and emergency medicine residents, nurses, and respiratory therapists who work in the pediatric ICU. A multidisciplinary focus group with experienced providers in pediatric ICU airway management and patient safety specialists was formed. A task-based scoring instrument was developed to evaluate a primary airway provider's performance through Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis. Reliability and validity of the instrument were evaluated using multidisciplinary simulation-based airway management training sessions. Each session was evaluated by 3 independent expert raters. A global assessment of the team performance and the previous experience in training were used to evaluate the validity of the instrument.

RESULTS: The Just-in-Time Pediatric Airway Provider Performance Scale (JIT-PAPPS) version 3, with 34 task-based items (14 technical, 20 behavioral), was developed. Eighty-five teams led by resident airway providers were evaluated by 3 raters. The intraclass correlation coefficient for raters was 0.64. The JIT-PAPPS score correlated well with the global rating scale (r = 0.71, P < .001). Mean total scores across the teams were positively associated with resident previous training participation (β coefficient 7.1 ± 0.9, P < .001), suggesting good validity of the scale.

CONCLUSIONS: A task-based scoring instrument for a primary airway provider's performance with a multidisciplinary pediatric ICU team on simulated pediatric respiratory failure was developed. Reliability and validity evaluation supports the developed scale.

With the 2010 federal health care reform passage, a renewed focus has emerged for the integration of electronic health records (EHRs) into the U.S. health care system. A consensus conference in October 2009 met to discuss the future research agenda with regard to using information technology (IT) to improve the future quality and safety of emergency department (ED) care. The literature is mixed as to how the use of computerized provider order entry (CPOE), clinical decision support (CDS), EHRs, and patient tracking systems has improved or degraded the safety and quality of ED care. Such mixed findings must be considered in the national push for rapid implementation of health IT. We present a research agenda addressing the major questions that are posed by the introduction of IT into ED care; these questions relate to interoperability, patient flow and integration into clinical work, real-time decision support, handoffs, safety-critical computing, and the interaction between IT systems and clinical workflows.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the current practice of pediatric airway management at referring hospitals and the associated adverse events compared to a receiving tertiary pediatric ICU.

METHOD: Retrospective chart and transport record review of all emergency critical care transports to our Pediatric ICU over 3 years. Data regarding tracheal intubation procedure, pre-defined adverse Tracheal Intubation Associated Events (TIAEs), and airway events before, during, and after the inter-hospital transport were collected using a standard National Emergency Airway Registry for children (NEAR4KIDS) definition. Tracheal intubation outcomes were compared to in-hospital P ICU intubations.

RESULTS: 253/1489 (17%) of critical care transports had airway management, all by tracheal intubation. The most common condition was seizure (34%), followed by pulmonary/lower airway disease (16%). 49 (19%) had TIAEs; the most common event was mainstem bronchial intubation (13%). Incidence of TIAEs was similar to PICU (p=0.69). Thirteen had an inappropriate tracheal tube position upon PICU arrival, but none experienced accidental extubation during transport. An uncuffed tracheal tube was used in 108/172 (63%) of patients<8 years, significantly higher than PICU (20%, p<0.0001). 124 (49%) were extubated within 24 h, 153 (60%) within 48 h. Two patients had the tracheal tube changed to cuffed from uncuffed due to air leak.

CONCLUSION: Provider reported adverse TIAEs are common during airway management in children requiring critical care transport, but not higher compared to PICU intubations. Most inter-hospital transport patients are intubated with an uncuffed tracheal tube. Subsequent tracheal tube change from uncuffed to cuffed tube is rarely required.

OBJECTIVE: Emergency department (ED) intubation personnel and practices have changed dramatically in recent decades, but have been described only in single-center studies. We sought to better describe ED intubations by using a multi-center registry.

METHODS: We established a multi-center registry and initiated surveillance of a longitudinal, prospective convenience sample of intubations at 31 EDs. Clinicians filled out a data form after each intubation. Our main outcome measures were descriptive. We characterized indications, methods, medications, success rates, intubator characteristics, and associated event rates. We report proportions with 95% confidence intervals and chi-squared testing; p-values < 0.05 were considered significant.

RESULTS: There were 8937 encounters recorded from September 1997 to June 2002. The intubation was performed for medical emergencies in 5951 encounters (67%) and for trauma in 2337 (26%); 649 (7%) did not have a recorded mechanism or indication. Rapid sequence intubation was the initial method chosen in 6138 of 8937 intubations (69%) and in 84% of encounters that involved any intubation medication. The first method chosen was successful in 95%, and intubation was ultimately successful in 99%. Emergency physicians performed 87% of intubations and anesthesiologists 3%. Several other specialties comprised the remaining 10%. One or more associated events were reported in 779 (9%) encounters, with an average of 12 per 100 encounters. No medication errors were reported in 6138 rapid sequence intubations. Surgical airways were performed in 0.84% of all cases and 1.7% of trauma cases.

CONCLUSION: Emergency physicians perform the vast majority of ED intubations. ED intubation is performed more commonly for medical than traumatic indications. Rapid sequence intubation is the most common method of ED intubation.

OBJECTIVE: Tracheal intubation in the pediatric intensive care unit is often performed in emergency situations with high risks. Simulation has been recognized as an effective methodology to train both technical and teamwork skills. Our objectives were to develop a feasible tool to evaluate team performance during tracheal intubation in the pediatric intensive care unit and to apply the tool in the clinical setting to determine whether multidisciplinary teams with a higher number of simulation-trained providers exhibit more proficient performance.

DESIGN: Prospective, observational pilot study.

SETTING: Single tertiary children's hospital pediatric intensive care unit.

SUBJECTS: Pediatric and emergency medicine residents, pediatric intensive care unit nurses, and respiratory therapists from October 2007 to June 2008.

INTERVENTIONS: A pediatric intensive care unit on-call resident, a pediatric intensive care unit nurse, and a respiratory therapist received simulation-based multidisciplinary airway management training every morning. An assessment tool for team technical and behavioral skills was developed. Independent trained observers rated actual intubations in the pediatric intensive care unit by using this tool.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: For observer training, two independent raters (research assistants 1 and 2) evaluated a total of 53 training sessions (research assistant 1, 16; research assistant 2, 37). The correlation coefficient with the facilitator expert (surrogate standard) was .73 for research assistant 1 and .88 for research assistant 2 (p ≤ .001 for both) in the total score, .84 for research assistant 1 and .77 for research assistant 2 (p < .001 for both) in the technical domain, and .63 for research assistant 1 (p = .009) and .84 for research assistant 2 (p < .001) in the behavioral domain. The correlation coefficient was lower in video-based observation (.62 vs. .88, on-site). For clinical observation, 15 intubations were observed in real time by raters. The performance by a team with two or more simulation-trained members was rated higher compared with the team with fewer than two trained members (total score: 127 ± 6 vs. 116 ± 9, p = .012, mean ± sd).

CONCLUSIONS: It is feasible to rate the technical and behavioral performance of multidisciplinary airway management teams during real intensive care unit intubation events by using our assessment tool. The presence of two or more multidisciplinary simulation-trained providers is associated with improved performance during real events.

BACKGROUND: Data on complications of gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures are limited. We evaluated prospectively the incidence and cost of hospital visits resulting from outpatient endoscopy.

METHODS: We developed an electronic medical record-based system to record automatically admissions to the emergency department (ED) within 14 days after endoscopy. Physicians evaluated all reported cases for relatedness of the ED visit to the prior endoscopy based on predetermined criteria.

RESULTS: We evaluated 6383 esophagogastroduodenoscopies (EGDs) and 11 632 colonoscopies (7392 for screening and surveillance). Among these, 419 ED visits and 266 hospitalizations occurred within 14 days after the procedure. One hundred thirty-four (32%) of the ED visits and 76 (29%) of the hospitalizations were procedure related, whereas 31 complications were recorded by standard physician reporting (P < .001). Procedure-related hospital visits occurred in 1.07%, 0.84%, and 0.95% of all EGDs, all colonoscopies, and screening colonoscopies, respectively. The mean costs were $1403 per ED visit and $10 123 per hospitalization based on Medicare standardized rates. Across the overall screening/surveillance colonoscopy program, these episodes added $48 per examination.

CONCLUSIONS: Using a novel automated system, we observed a 1% incidence of related hospital visits within 14 days of outpatient endoscopy, 2- to 3-fold higher than recent estimates. Most events were not captured by standard reporting, and strategies for automating adverse event reporting should be developed. The cost of unexpected hospital visits postendoscopy may be significant and should be taken into account in screening or surveillance programs.

DIORAMA is a real-time scalable decision support framework built on rapid information collection and accurate resource tracking functionalities. Using RFID technology the proposed system tracks emergency responders and victims at the disaster scene. DIORAMA improves the accuracy and decreases the time it takes rescuers to triage, treat and evacuate victims from a disaster scene, as compared to the traditional methods and process that involves using paper triage tags. The information can then be viewed from a website that shows a satellite image of the disaster area with icons representing the paramedics and victims.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: In 2003, the Institute of Medicine Committee on the Future of Emergency Care in the United States Health System convened and identified a crisis in emergency care in the United States, including a need to enhance the research base for emergency care. As a result, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) formed an NIH Task Force on Research in Emergency Medicine to enhance NIH support for emergency care research. Members of the NIH Task Force and academic leaders in emergency care participated in 3 roundtable discussions to prioritize current opportunities for enhancing and conducting emergency care research. The objectives of these discussions were to identify key research questions essential to advancing the scientific underpinnings of emergency care and to discuss the barriers and best means to advance research by exploring the role of research networks and collaboration between the NIH and the emergency care community.

METHODS: The Medical-Surgical Research Roundtable was convened on April 30 to May 1, 2009. Before the roundtable, the emergency care domains to be discussed were selected and experts in each of the fields were invited to participate in the roundtable. Domain experts were asked to identify research priorities and challenges and separate them into mechanistic, translational, and clinical categories. After the conference, the lists were circulated among the participants and revised to reach a consensus.

RESULTS: Emergency care research is characterized by focus on the timing, sequence, and time sensitivity of disease processes and treatment effects. Rapidly identifying the phenotype and genotype of patients manifesting a specific disease process and the mechanistic reasons for heterogeneity in outcome are important challenges in emergency care research. Other research priorities include the need to elucidate the timing, sequence, and duration of causal molecular and cellular events involved in time-critical illnesses and injuries, and the development of treatments capable of halting or reversing them; the need for novel animal models; and the need to understand why there are regional differences in outcome for the same disease processes. Important barriers to emergency care research include a limited number of trained investigators and experienced mentors, limited research infrastructure and support, and regulatory hurdles. The science of emergency care may be advanced by facilitating the following: (1) training emergency care investigators with research training programs; (2) developing emergency care clinical research networks; (3) integrating emergency care research into Clinical and Translational Science Awards; (4) developing emergency care-specific initiatives within the existing structure of NIH institutes and centers; (5) involving emergency specialists in grant review and research advisory processes; (6) supporting learn-phase or small, clinical trials; and (7) performing research to address ethical and regulatory issues.

CONCLUSION: Enhancing the research base supporting the care of medical and surgical emergencies will require progress in specific mechanistic, translational, and clinical domains; effective collaboration of academic investigators across traditional clinical and scientific boundaries; federal support of research in high-priority areas; and overcoming limitations in available infrastructure, research training, and access to patient populations.

BACKGROUND: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a non-invasive MRI technique that has been used to quantify CNS abnormalities in various pathologic conditions. This study was designed to quantify the anisotropic diffusion properties in the brain of neonatal rats with hydrocephalus (HCP) and to investigate association between DTI measurements and cytopathology.

METHODS: DTI data were acquired between postnatal day 7 (P7) and P12 in 12 rats with HCP induced at P2 and in 15 age-matched controls. Animals were euthanized at P11 or P22/P23 and brains were processed with immunohistochemistry for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), ionized calcium-binding adaptor molecule (Iba-1), and luxol fast blue (LFB) to assess astrocytosis, microglial reactivity and degree of myelination, respectively.

RESULTS: Hydrocephalic rats were consistently found to have an abnormally low (at corrected p-level of <0.05) fractional anisotropy (FA) value and an abnormally high mean diffusivity (MD) value in the cerebral cortex (CX), the corpus callosum (CC), and the internal capsule (IC). Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated trends of increasing astrocyte and microglial reactivity in HCP rats at P11 that reached statistical significance at P22/P23. A trend toward reduced myelination in the HCP rats was also found at P22/P23. Correlation analysis at P11 for the CC demonstrated statistically significant correlations (or trends) between the DTI measurement (the decreased FA and increased MD values) and the GFAP or Iba-1 rankings. The immunohistochemical rankings in the IC at P22/P23 were also significantly correlated or demonstrated a trend with both FA and MD values.

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the feasibility of employing DTI on the brain in experimental hydrocephalus in neonatal rats and reveals impairments in multiple regions of interest in both grey and white matter. A strong correlation was found between the immunohistochemical results and the changes in anisotropic diffusion properties.

OBJECTIVES: Video laryngoscopy has been shown to improve glottic exposure when compared to direct laryngoscopy in operating room studies. However, its utility in the hands of emergency physicians (EPs) remains undefined. A simulated difficult airway was used to determine if intubation by EPs using a video Macintosh system resulted in an improved glottic view, was easier, was faster, or was more successful than conventional direct laryngoscopy.

METHODS: Emergency medicine (EM) residents and attending physicians at two academic institutions performed endotracheal intubation in one normal and two identical difficult airway scenarios. With the difficult scenarios, the participants used video laryngoscopy during the second case. Intubations were performed on a medium-fidelity human simulator. The difficult scenario was created by limiting cervical spine mobility and inducing trismus. The primary outcome was the proportion of direct versus video intubations with a grade I or II Cormack-Lehane glottic view. Ease of intubation (self-reported via 10-cm visual analog scale [VAS]), time to intubation, and success rate were also recorded. Descriptive statistics as well as medians with interquartile ranges (IQRs) are reported where appropriate. The Wilcoxon matched pairs signed-rank test was used for comparison testing of nonparametric data.

RESULTS: Participants (n = 39) were residents (59%) and faculty. All had human intubation experience; 51% reported more than 100 prior intubations. On difficult laryngoscopy, a Cormack-Lehane grade I or II view was obtained in 20 (51%) direct laryngoscopies versus 38 (97%) of the video-assisted laryngoscopies (p < 0.01). The median VAS score for difficult airways was 50 mm (IQR = 28–73 mm) for direct versus 18 mm (IQR = 9–50 mm) for video (p < 0.01). The median time to intubation in difficult airways was 25 seconds (IQR = 16–44 seconds) for direct versus 20 seconds (IQR = 12–35 seconds) for video laryngoscopy (p < 0.01). All intubations were successful without need for an invasive airway.

CONCLUSIONS: In this simulation, video laryngoscopy was associated with improved glottic exposure, was perceived as easier, and was slightly faster than conventional direct laryngoscopy in a simulated difficult airway. Absence of secretions and blood limits the generalizability of our findings; human studies are needed.