Regional access to a centralized extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) service in Victoria, Australia.

Introduction: Victoria, Australia provides a centralised state ECMO service, supported by ambulance retrieval. Equity of access to this service has not been previously described.

Objective: Describe the characteristics of ECMO recipients and quantify geographical and socioeconomic influence on access.

Opportunities and Challenges to Build Behavioral Health Crisis Capacity in Rural America.

This column shares lessons learned from a 1-year pilot implementation of a crisis response program deploying crisis professionals to rural parts of Albany County, New York. The data (325 crisis interventions for 191 unique individuals, 57% of cases resolved on the scene) suggest that the program helps fill the crisis services gap in these communities. Police were present on 80% of cases.

Intensive care implications of epidemic thunderstorm asthma.

Objective: To investigate the environmental precipitants, treatment and outcome of critically ill patients affected by the largest and most lethal reported epidemic of thunderstorm asthma.

Design, Setting And Participants: Retrospective multicentre observational study. Meteorological, airborne particulate and pollen data, and a case series of 35 patients admitted to 15 intensive care units (ICUs) due to the thunderstorm asthma event of 21-22 November 2016, in Victoria, Australia, were analysed and compared with 1062 total ICU-admitted Australian patients with asthma in 2016.

The Melbourne epidemic thunderstorm asthma event 2016: an investigation of environmental triggers, effect on health services, and patient risk factors.

Background: A multidisciplinary collaboration investigated the world's largest, most catastrophic epidemic thunderstorm asthma event that took place in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov 21, 2016, to inform mechanisms and preventive strategies.

Methods: Meteorological and airborne pollen data, satellite-derived vegetation index, ambulance callouts, emergency department presentations, and data on hospital admissions for Nov 21, 2016, as well as leading up to and following the event were collected between Nov 21, 2016, and March 31, 2017, and analysed. We contacted patients who presented during the epidemic thunderstorm asthma event at eight metropolitan health services (each including up to three hospitals) via telephone questionnaire to determine patient characteristics, and investigated outcomes of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions.