Publications by authors named "Kelly Withum"

Objective: Over the past 10 years, the BMW Accident Research Program (ARP) has investigated how and why occupants are injured in motor vehicle crashes by reconstructing the crash. This research discusses the 2006-2017 ARP case study methodology and comprehensively describes the cases investigated over the past decade.

Methods: Accident research program cases are selected according to emerging trends and issues identified by BMW.

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Article Synopsis
  • Specialized training for first responders is essential for effective handling of rare CBRNE incidents, but skill decay can occur due to infrequent exposure.
  • A study was conducted with 90 first responders where one group received mobile training videos before simulated disaster scenarios, while the control group did not.
  • Results showed that the intervention group performed significantly better in scenarios involving explosives and chemical nerve agents, highlighting the effectiveness of just-in-time mobile training resources.
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Objective: Chest tube thoracostomies are common surgical procedures, but little is known about how practitioners learn the skill. This study evaluates the frequency with which correctly performed tasks are executed by subjects during chest tube thoracostomies.

Design: In this prospective study, we developed a mobile-learning module, containing stepwise multimedia guidance on chest tube insertion.

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Reports of Staphylococcus aureus including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) detected in marine environments have occurred since the early 1990 s. This investigation sought to isolate and characterize S.

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Background: Resident work-hour restrictions challenge educators to supplement residents' surgical education. We evaluated a computer-based trauma surgery system's ability to increase residents' surgical knowledge.

Methods: Modules on thoracic and abdominal surgical approaches were evaluated.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study explores how mobile learning can be used in acute trauma care to enhance education for military health professionals, moving away from traditional lectures.
  • A comparative evaluation was conducted among U.S. Army Forward Surgical Team members to assess the effectiveness of mobile learning videos against didactic lectures on medical shock.
  • Results showed that both groups improved their scores, but mobile learning users rose from a mean of 43.6 to 70, indicating potential benefits of this method in military and civilian medical training.
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Background: Social networking (SN) has become ubiquitous in modern culture. The potential consequences of revealing personal information through SN websites are not fully understood.

Objective: To assess familiarity with, usage of, and attitudes towards, SN websites by admissions offices at US medical schools and residency programmes.

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Background: Just-In-Time Learning is a concept increasingly applied to medical education, and its efficacy must be evaluated.

Materials And Methods: A 3-minute video on chest tube insertion was produced. Consenting participants were assigned to either the video group, which viewed the video on an Apple® iPod Touch immediately before chest tube insertion, or the control group, which received no instruction.

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Studies evaluating the relationship between microbes and human health at non-point source beaches are necessary for establishing criteria which would protect public health while minimizing economic burdens. The objective of this study was to evaluate water quality and daily cumulative health effects (gastrointestinal, skin, and respiratory illnesses) for bathers at a non-point source subtropical marine recreational beach in order to better understand the inter-relationships between these factors and hence improve monitoring and pollution prevention techniques. Daily composite samples were collected, during the Oceans and Human Health Beach Exposure Assessment and Characterization Health Epidemiologic Study conducted in Miami (Florida, USA) at a non-point source beach, and analyzed for several pathogens, microbial source tracking markers, indicator microbes, and environmental parameters.

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Background: Staphylococcus aureus including methicillin resistant S. aureus, MRSA, are human colonizing bacteria that commonly cause opportunistic infections primarily involving the skin in otherwise healthy individuals. These infections have been linked to close contact and sharing of common facilities such as locker rooms, schools and prisons Waterborne exposure and transmission routes have not been traditionally associated with S.

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The use of enterococci as the primary fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) for the determination of recreational water safety has been questioned, particularly in sub/tropical marine waters without known point sources of sewage. Alternative FIB (such as the Bacteroidales group) and alternative measurement methods (such as rapid molecular testing) have been proposed to supplement or replace current marine water quality testing methods which require culturing enterococci. Moreover, environmental parameters have also been proposed to supplement current monitoring programs.

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Background: Microbial water-quality indicators, in high concentrations in sewage, are used to determine whether water is safe for recreational purposes. Recently, the use of these indicators to regulate recreational water bodies, particularly in sub/tropical recreational marine waters without known sources of sewage, has been questioned. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the risk to humans from exposure to subtropical recreational marine waters with no known point source, and the possible relationship between microbe densities and reported symptoms in human subjects with random-exposure assignment and intensive individual microbial monitoring in this environment.

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Traditionally, the use of enterococci has been recommended as the fecal indicator bacteria of choice for testing marine recreational water quality, and prior studies have shown that bathers shed large numbers of enterococci into the water. The current study expands upon prior research by evaluating shedding from both toddlers and adults, and by the expansion of measurements to include enterococci shedding via three different methods (membrane filter (MF), chromogenic substrate (CS), and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)) and shedding of alternative fecal indicator bacteria (Bacteroidales human markers UCD and HF8 via qPCR). Two sets of experiments were conducted.

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