Bronchiolitis at a specialist paediatric centre: The electronic medical record helps to evaluate low-value care.

Aim: Low-value care (LVC) is common. We aimed, using infants presenting to a major tertiary paediatric hospital with bronchiolitis between April 2016 and July 2018, to: (i) assess rates of chest X-ray (CXR) and medication use; (ii) identify associated factors; and (iii) measure the harm of not performing these practices.

Methods: We extracted data from the electronic medical record for all children aged 1-12 months given a diagnosis of bronchiolitis in the emergency department.

Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease: incidence and progression in the Northern Territory of Australia, 1997 to 2010.

Background: Although acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and its sequel, rheumatic heart disease (RHD), continue to cause a large burden of morbidity and mortality in disadvantaged populations, most studies investigating the effectiveness of control programs date from the 1950s. A control program, including a disease register, in the Northern Territory of Australia where the Indigenous population has high rates of ARF and RHD allowed us to examine current disease incidence and progression.

Methods And Results: ARF and RHD incidence rates, ARF recurrence rates, progression rates from ARF to RHD to heart failure, and RHD survival and mortality rates were calculated for Northern Territory residents from 1997 to 2010.