Effects of Educational Messaging on Urgent and Emergent Care-Seeking Behaviors Among Publicly Insured Populations.

Background: The impact of messaging campaigns on influencing urgent care- and emergent care-seeking behaviors, including the use of in-network providers, is not well-understood. Although out-of-network healthcare utilization can have negative financial consequences for patients in narrow network Affordable Care Act plans, individuals with time-sensitive medical conditions, and especially patients visiting the emergency department, may not think about out-of-network issues. Inappropriate or avoidable emergency department visits can also create unnecessary costs for patients.

The Forgotten Plague: Psychiatric Manifestations of Ebola, Zika, and Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The media and public health generally focus on the biological and physical ramifications of epidemics. Mental health issues that coincide with emerging diseases and epidemics are rarely examined and sometimes, even eschewed due to cultural considerations. Psychiatric manifestations of various infectious diseases, especially with a focus on Ebola Virus disease (EVD) and Zika Virus, are discussed in this commentary to illustrate the continued need of care after the resolution of the actual illness.

Making disaster care count: consensus formulation of measures of effectiveness for natural disaster acute phase medical response.

Introduction: No standard exists for provision of care following catastrophic natural disasters. Host nations, funders, and overseeing agencies need a method to identify the most effective interventions when allocating finite resources. Measures of effectiveness are real-time indicators that can be used to link early action with downstream impact.

Preparing for effective communications during disasters: lessons from a World Health Organization quality improvement project.

Background: One hundred ninety-four member nations turn to the World Health Organization (WHO) for guidance and assistance during disasters. Purposes of disaster communication include preventing panic, promoting appropriate health behaviors, coordinating response among stakeholders, advocating for affected populations, and mobilizing resources.

Methods: A quality improvement project was undertaken to gather expert consensus on best practices that could be used to improve WHO protocols for disaster communication.

Global health and emergency care: an undergraduate medical education consensus-based research agenda.

Global emergency medicine (EM) is a rapidly growing field within EM, as evidenced by the increasing number of medical students desiring global health and emergency care experiences. Despite this growing popularity, little is known of the effect of undergraduate medical education in global health on learners and patients in the United States and abroad. During the 2013 Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference, a group of leading medical school educators convened to generate a research agenda on priority questions to be answered in this arena.

Creation and implementation of an emergency medicine education and training program in Turkey: an effective educational intervention to address the practitioner gap.

Background: The specialty of Emergency Medicine has enjoyed recognition for nearly 20 years in Turkey. However, the majority of underserved and rural Turkish emergency departments are staffed by general practitioners who lack formal training in the specialty and have few opportunities to increase emergency medicine-specific knowledge and skills.

Methods: To address this "practitioner gap," the authors developed a four-phase comprehensive emergency medicine education and training program for general practitioners practicing in government hospitals in Turkey.

Optimizing global health experiences in emergency medicine residency programs: a consensus statement from the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors 2011 Academic Assembly global health specialty track.

Background: An increasing number of emergency medicine (EM) residency training programs have residents interested in participating in clinical rotations in other countries. However, the policies that each individual training program applies to this process are different. To our knowledge, little has been done in the standardization of these experiences to help EM residency programs with the evaluation, administration and implementation of a successful global health clinical elective experience.

Prehospital care algorithm for blast injuries due to bombing incidents.

Terrorist bombings continue to remain a risk for local jurisdictions, and retrospective data from the United States show that bombings occur in residential and business areas due to interpersonal violence without political motives. In the event of a mass-casualty bombing incident, prehospital care providers will have the responsibility for identifying and managing blast injuries unique to bombing victims. In a large-scale event, emergency medical services personnel should be required to provide prolonged medical care in the prehospital setting, and they will be able to deliver improved care with a better understanding of blast injuries and a concise algorithm for managing them.

Core curricular elements for fellowship training in international emergency medicine.

Objectives: The objective was to describe the common educational goals, curricular elements, and methods of evaluation used in international emergency medicine (IEM) fellowship training programs currently. IEM fellowship programs have been developed to provide formal training for emergency physicians (EPs) interested in pursuing careers in IEM. Those fellowships are variable in scope, objectives, and duration.

International emergency medicine and the role for academic emergency medicine.

International emergency medicine continues to grow and expand. There are now more than 30 countries that recognize emergency medicine as a specialty. As the field continues to develop, many physicians are reaching across borders and working with their colleagues to improve patient care, education, and research.

The United States twenty-year experience with bombing incidents: implications for terrorism preparedness and medical response.

Background: Terrorist bombings remain a significant threat in the United States. However, minimal longitudinal data exists regarding the medical and public health impact because of bombings.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of the number of incidents, injuries, and deaths because of explosive, incendiary, premature, and attempted bombings from January 1983 to December 2002.

Funding emergency medicine development in low- and middle-income countries.

The specialty of EM is developing rapidly throughout the world. This growth is relatively lacking in the LICs, however. The lack of resources and financing capabilities in these regions may hinder specialty development.