Background: Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into intensive care practices can enhance patient care by providing real-time predictions and aiding clinical decisions. However, biases in AI models can undermine diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, particularly in visual representations of healthcare professionals. This work aims to examine the demographic representation of two AI text-to-image models, Midjourney and ChatGPT DALL-E 2, and assess their accuracy in depicting the demographic characteristics of intensivists.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrehospital detection and triage of stroke patients mostly rely on the use of large vessel occlusion prediction scales to decrease onsite time. These quick but simplified scores, though useful, prevent prehospital providers from detecting posterior strokes and isolated symptoms such as limb ataxia or hemianopia. In the present case, an ambulance was dispatched to a 46-year-old man known for ophthalmic migraines and high blood pressure, who presented isolated visual symptoms different from those associated with his usual migraine attacks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAchieving a high participation rate is a common challenge in healthcare research based on web-based surveys. A study on local anesthetic systemic toxicity awareness and usage among medical practitioners at two Swiss university hospitals encountered resistance in obtaining personal email addresses from Heads of Departments. Participants were therefore divided into two groups: those who were directly invited via email (personal invitation group) and those who received a generic link through intermediaries (generic link group).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The use of local anaesthetics (LAs) is usually associated with few adverse effects, but local anaesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST) can result in serious harm and even death. However, practitioner awareness regarding this risk has been little studied.
Methods: This was a closed, web-based study carried out at two Swiss university hospitals using a fully automated questionnaire.
Background: Local anesthetics (LAs) are regularly used to alleviate pain during medical or surgical procedures. Their use is generally considered safe, but exceeding the maximum recommended doses can lead to LA systemic toxicity, a rare but potentially lethal complication. Determining maximum safe doses is therefore mandatory before performing local anesthesia, but rules are often unclear and the factors affecting dose calculation are numerous.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cardiac arrest is the most time-critical emergency medical students and junior physicians may face in their personal or professional life. However, many studies have shown that most of them lack the necessary knowledge and skills to efficiently perform resuscitation. This could be related to the fact that advanced cardiovascular resuscitation courses are not always part of the undergraduate medical curriculum.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground and objective: The prognosis of cardiac arrest victims strongly depends on the prompt provision of Basic Life Support (BLS) maneuvers. Medical students should therefore be proficient in this area, but many lack essential BLS knowledge. The goal of this prospective, closed web-based study was to determine whether a short intervention designed to motivate first-year medical students to follow a blended BLS course could lead to a significant improvement in BLS knowledge in the following year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfection prevention interventions can only be effective if they are both well known and easily accessible. A randomized controlled trial showed that a serious game, "Escape COVID-19", was significantly more effective at improving the intention of adopting adequate infection prevention behavior than regular guidelines among long-term care facility employees. However, less than a fifth of all potential participants were finally recruited in this study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrehospital airway devices are often classified as either basic or advanced, with this latter category including both supraglottic airway (SGA) devices and instruments designed to perform endotracheal intubation (ETI). Therefore, many authors analyze the impact of SGA and ETI devices jointly. There are however fundamental differences between these instruments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Prompt and proficient basic life support (BLS) maneuvers are essential to increasing the odds of survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. However, significant time can elapse before the arrival of professional rescuers. To decrease these delays, many countries have developed first responder networks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrehospital endotracheal intubation (ETI) can be challenging, and the risk of complications is higher than in the operating room. The goal of this study was to compare prehospital ETI rates between anaesthesiologists and non-anaesthesiologists. This retrospective cohort study compared prehospital interventions performed by either physicians from the anaesthesiology department (ADP) or physicians from another department (NADP, for non-anaesthesiology department physicians).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
March 2022
Personal protective equipment doffing is a complex procedure that needs to be adequately performed to prevent health care worker contamination. During the COVID-19 pandemic, junior health care workers and students of different health care professions who had not been trained to carry out such procedures were often called upon to take care of infected patients. To limit direct contact, distance teaching interventions were used, but different trials found that their impact was rather limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) is commonly used to triage and monitor the evolution of stroke victims. Data regarding NIHSS knowledge in nurses and physicians working with stroke patients are scarce, and a progressive decline in specific knowledge regarding this challenging scale is to be expected even among NIHSS certified personnel. This protocol was designed according to the CONSORT-eHealth (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) guidelines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Lassitude and a rather high degree of mistrust toward the authorities can make regular or overly constraining COVID-19 infection prevention and control campaigns inefficient and even counterproductive. Serious games provide an original, engaging, and potentially effective way of disseminating COVID-19 infection prevention and control guidelines. Escape COVID-19 is a serious game for teaching COVID-19 infection prevention and control practices that has previously been validated in a population of nursing home personnel.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLocal anesthetics systemic toxicity can lead to life-threatening situations. Correct calculation of the maximum safe dose is therefore paramount in preventing such complications. Different solutions have already emerged to support anesthesiologists but are seldom used in clinical practice as they require either access to a computer or specific documents to be at hand.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJMIR Res Protoc
April 2021
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought attention to the importance of correctly using personal protective equipment (PPE). Doffing is a critical phase that increases the risk of contamination of health care workers. Although a gamified electronic learning (e-learning) module has been shown to increase the adequate choice of PPE among prehospital personnel, it failed to enhance knowledge regarding donning and doffing sequences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Most residents of long-term care facilities (LTCFs) are at high risk of complications and death following SARS-CoV-2 infection. In these facilities, viral transmission can be facilitated by shortages of human and material resources, which can lead to suboptimal application of infection prevention and control (IPC) procedures. To improve the dissemination of COVID-19 IPC guidelines, we developed a serious game called "Escape COVID-19" using Nicholson's RECIPE for meaningful gamification, as engaging serious games have the potential to induce behavioral change.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably altered the regular medical education curriculum while increasing the need for health care professionals. Senior medical students are being incrementally deployed to the front line to address the shortage of certified physicians. These students, some of whom will be fast-tracked as physicians, may lack knowledge regarding the initial management of time-critical emergencies such as stroke.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) represents an effective therapeutic procedure, particularly in patients with severe aortic stenosis. We hypothesized that the decreased afterload induced by TAVI would improve exercise capacity by enhancing oxygen uptake in working muscles.
Methods: A standardized exercise test was performed in patients with severe aortic stenosis the day before TAVI and within 5 days thereafter.
Background: Nursing home residents are at high risk of complications and death due to COVID-19. Lack of resources, both human and material, amplifies the likelihood of contamination in these facilities where a single employee can contaminate dozens of residents and colleagues. Improving the dissemination of and adhesion to infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines is therefore essential.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Victims of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) have higher survival rates and more favorable neurological outcomes when basic life support (BLS) maneuvers are initiated quickly after collapse. Although more than half of OHCAs are witnessed, BLS is infrequently provided, thereby worsening the survival and neurological prognoses of OHCA victims. According to the theory of planned behavior, the probability of executing an action is strongly linked to the intention of performing it.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: As many countries fear and even experience the emergence of a second wave of COVID-19, reminding health care workers (HCWs) and other hospital employees of the critical role they play in preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission is more important than ever. Building and strengthening the intrinsic motivation of HCWs to apply infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines to avoid contaminating their colleagues, patients, friends, and relatives is a goal that must be energetically pursued. A high rate of nosocomial infections during the first COVID-19 wave was detected by IPC specialists and further cemented their belief in the need for an engaging intervention that could improve compliance with COVID-19 safe behaviors.
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