Publications by authors named "Ashley Bjorklund"

Article Synopsis
  • A clinical trial was conducted in rural Cambodia to assess the safety of a low-cost oxygen blender, called LESS, used in conjunction with bCPAP for children under five experiencing respiratory distress.
  • The trial included 32 patients, and clinical failure (like needing intubation or showing new respiratory issues) occurred in only one case (3.1%).
  • While the LESS O blender was generally safe, there were issues such as frequent repairs and adjustments needed, highlighting the potential for design improvements to enhance its performance and reliability.*
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Congenital skin and soft tissue necrosis is a rare condition associated with significant morbidity and mortality in neonates. The authors treated a neonate born with significant skin necrosis of the right forearm. The case report is followed by a literature review and discussion of previously published reports of neonatal skin necrosis.

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Article Synopsis
  • Shock is a critical condition caused by insufficient oxygen or glucose for the body’s metabolic needs, leading to energy failure.
  • It is a significant cause of death and disability among children globally, with various types, including hypovolemic, cardiogenic, distributive, and obstructive shock.
  • The review discusses the causes, effects, clinical symptoms for each type, and highlights advancements in diagnostic methods and treatment approaches.
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The events of recent years have affected the landscape of global child health education (GCHE) in the United States. War, racism, forced displacement, and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had global repercussions that reached US GCHE. The aim of this article is to examine the effect of these events on the landscape of GCHE in the US.

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Background And Objective: Pediatric interfacility transport teams facilitate access to subspecialty care, and physicians often guide management remotely as transport medical control (TMC). Pediatric subspecialty fellows frequently perform TMC duties, but tools assessing competency are lacking. Our objective was to develop content validity for the items required to assess pediatric subspecialty fellows' TMC skills.

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Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) are the leading cause of death in young children globally. Most of the global burden of mortality from LRTIs occurs in low-resource settings (LRSs), where obtaining and maintaining respiratory support devices such as commercial bubble continuous positive airway pressure (bCPAP) can be prohibitive. Low-cost bCPAP devices exist, such as the homemade WHO-style bCPAP design, but the safety of this design has been called into question.

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Study Objective: Bougie use during emergency tracheal intubation has not been well studied in children.

Methods: This was a 10-year observational study of pediatric intubations (<18 years of age) in the emergency department (ED) of an academic institution. Bougie training and use are standard in our ED, including for emergency medicine residents.

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Respiratory disease is a leading cause of death in children under 5 years of age worldwide, and most of these deaths occur in low- to middle-income countries (LMICs) where advanced respiratory care technology is often limited. Much of the equipment required to provide advanced respiratory care is unavailable in these areas due to high costs, the need for specialty trained personnel, and myriad other resource constraints that limit uptake and sustainable use of these devices, including reliable access to electricity, sensitive equipment needing frequent maintenance, single-patient-use supplies, and lack of access to sterilization equipment. Compounding the problem, pediatrics is uniquely challenging in that one size does not fit all, or even most patients.

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Bubble CPAP is used in low-resource settings to support children with pneumonia. Low-cost modifications of bubble CPAP using 100% oxygen introduces the risk of hyperoxia. Our team developed a low-cost, readily constructible oxygen blender to lower the oxygen concentration.

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Pediatric critical care has continued to advance since our last article, " was written just 3 years ago. In that article, we reviewed the history, current state, and gaps in level of care between low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs). In this article, we have highlighted recent advancements in pediatric critical care in LMICs in the areas of research, training and education, and technology.

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Objectives: Characterize transport medical control education in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine fellowship.

Design: Cross-sectional survey study.

Setting: Pediatric Critical Care Medicine fellowship programs in the United States.

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This report documents a case of sinus bradycardia in a hospitalised 27-month-old girl with a history of moderate persistent asthma, recent suspected viral respiratory infection and suspicion for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). This patient developed profound sinus bradycardia during her hospitalisation despite an overall well clinical appearance and good outcome. Reports of bradycardia related to COVID-19 infection are few but growing in number.

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Systemic capillary leak syndrome (SCLS) is a potentially life-threatening disorder characterized by distributive shock, hypoalbuminemia, and hemoconcentration. It is exceedingly rare in children with less than 20 cases reported to date. The underlying cause for this syndrome remains largely unknown and acute treatment has remained mainly supportive.

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While bubble continuous positive airway pressure (bCPAP) is commonly used in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) to support neonates with respiratory distress, there are limited non-invasive support options for non-neonatal children. : To demonstrate safety of a new device designed to support children during respiratory distress in LMIC. A paediatric bCPAP device was designed called SEAL-bCPAP (Simplified Ear-plug Adapted-bCPAP).

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Pediatric critical care is an important component of reducing morbidity and mortality globally. Currently, pediatric critical care in low middle-income countries (LMICs) remains in its infancy in most hospitals. The majority of hospitals lack designated intensive care units, healthcare staff trained to care for critically ill children, adequate numbers of staff, and rapid access to necessary medications, supplies and equipment.

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Pediatric providers are caring for a growing number of adults in pediatric in-patient settings due to the increasing survival of patients with historically pediatric disease. Beyond understanding the unique medical management of these patients, adult-specific ethical and legal issues must be considered. The aim of this article is to discuss four major issues unique to caring for adult patients: advance directives, confidentiality, decision-making capacity, and palliative care.

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Providing evidence-based care to the critically ill child including assessment, evaluation, and management in resource-limited settings provides unique challenges and limitless opportunities to significantly impact morbidity and mortality in these settings. Difficulties encountered include: determining which disease processes will benefit most from critical care in resource-limited settings, lack of triage tools and adjuncts to help with assessment, finite laboratory and radiological tests, limited understanding of key findings in critically ill/injured pediatric patients, (especially by those without pediatric focused training), and finally, lack of supplies, medicines, equipment, and training of health care providers to appropriately treat critically ill children in these resource-limited settings. In this review, the most common problems encountered and possible solutions to overcome these obstacles are discussed.

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Lack of global health knowledge places immigrants at risk of iatrogenic morbidity. Although global health education programs have grown in popularity, measurable impact is lacking. We previously surveyed 363 physicians in training across 15 programs in four countries in 2004 regarding basic parasite knowledge and recognition of Strongyloides risk through a theoretical case scenario.

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