Publications by authors named "Mark Kol"
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to assess public perceptions of fairness in intensive care triage methods during a pandemic, focusing on chronic comorbidity factors.
- A survey conducted with 2000 registered voters evaluated the fairness of triaging based on medical conditions, long-term survival, function, and frailty, alongside preferences for vulnerable individuals and frontline workers.
- Results revealed that while most respondents found comorbidity-based triage methods fair, a notable minority viewed it as unfair, particularly regarding preferential treatment for vulnerable groups; however, triage for healthcare workers was generally seen as fair.
Article Synopsis
- The study focused on the effectiveness of a referral protocol for assessing postextubation dysphagia (PED) in patients who were intubated for 48 hours or more, which is linked to severe health issues like pneumonia and higher mortality rates.
- Over a two-year period, 96% of eligible patients were assessed, revealing that 89% had PED, with 26% experiencing profound severity.
- The results highlighted quick assessment and management by speech pathologists, with patients recovering from dysphagia within a median of 7 days, demonstrating the importance of early intervention for this high-risk group.
Article Synopsis
- This study looked at how burn patients in intensive care are helped with breathing machines, specifically using something called lung-protective ventilation.
- Researchers checked the breathing settings of 160 patients from 28 hospitals in 16 countries to see if using low volumes of air helped them recover better.
- They found that most patients were getting this type of ventilation, but it didn't seem to make a big difference in how many days they were off the ventilator or if they were alive 28 days later.
Background: For patients requiring admission to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), transfers of care (TOC) during admission to and discharge from the ICU are particularly high-risk periods for medication errors. In the Australian setting, commonly general wards and the ICU do not share an integrated Electronic Medical ecord (EMR) and specifically an Electronic Medication Management System (EMMS) as part of the EMR.
Purpose: To evaluate the effect of a hospital wide integrated EMMS on medication error rates during ICU admission and at TOC.
Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) secondary to non-cardiac surgery and medical illness is common and, although often transient, is associated with an increased risk of stroke and mortality. This pilot study tested the feasibility of self-monitoring to detect recurrent AF in this setting and the frequency with which it occurred.
Methods: Patients with new secondary AF after non-cardiac surgery or medical illness that reverted to sinus rhythm before discharge were recruited in three tertiary hospitals in Australia.
Aim: To describe the first Australian cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) disease (COVID-19) pneumonia treated with the interleukin-6 receptor antagonist tocilizumab.
Methods: Retrospective, open-label, real-world, uncontrolled, single-arm case series conducted in 2 tertiary hospitals in NSW, Australia and 1 tertiary hospital in Victoria, Australia. Five adult male patients aged between 46 and 74 years with type 1 respiratory failure due to COVID-19 pneumonia requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission and biochemical evidence of systemic hyperinflammation (C-reactive protein greater than 100 mg/L; ferritin greater than 700 μg/L) were administered variable-dose tocilizumab.
Importance: Evidence regarding corticosteroid use for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is limited.
Objective: To determine whether hydrocortisone improves outcome for patients with severe COVID-19.
Design, Setting, And Participants: An ongoing adaptive platform trial testing multiple interventions within multiple therapeutic domains, for example, antiviral agents, corticosteroids, or immunoglobulin.
Background And Objective: An influenza pandemic has the potential to overwhelm intensive care resources, but the views of the general public on how resources should be allocated in such a scenario were unknown. We aimed to determine Australian and New Zealand public opinion on how intensive care unit beds should be allocated during an influenza pandemic.
Design, Setting, And Participants: A postal questionnaire was sent to 4000 randomly selected registered voters; 2000 people each from the Australian Electoral Commission and New Zealand Electoral Commission rolls.