Quantifying Clinically Meaningful Point-of-Care Ultrasound Interpretation Discrepancies Using an Emergency Department Quality Assurance Program.

Objectives: Emergency medicine professional associations recommend that quality assurance (QA) programs be implemented wherever emergency department (ED) point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is in use. The purpose of this study is to identify the rate of clinically meaningful interpretation discrepancies between initial ED POCUS interpretation and a gold standard using a QA program in a Canadian academic ED.

Methods: All POCUS examinations completed in our ED are subject to a QA process.

Evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of point-of-care ultrasound for cholelithiasis and cholecystitis in a canadian emergency department.

Objectives: Cholelithiasis and cholecystitis are common conditions that frequently require patients to come to the Emergency Department (ED) and undergo diagnostic imaging. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the test characteristics of emergency physician performed point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) to diagnose cholelithiasis and cholecystitis in a Canadian ED.

Methods: A health records review was performed on all ED patients > 17 years of age for whom POCUS was performed to diagnose cholelithiasis and cholecystitis in a Canadian academic ED over a 5-year period.

Prognostic accuracy of the Hamilton Early Warning Score (HEWS) and the National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) among hospitalized patients assessed by a rapid response team.

Background: Rapid response teams (RRTs) respond to hospitalized patients experiencing clinical deterioration and help determine subsequent management and disposition. We sought to evaluate and compare the prognostic accuracy of the Hamilton Early Warning Score (HEWS) and the National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) for prediction of in-hospital mortality following RRT activation. We secondarily evaluated a subgroup of patients with suspected infection.

Attitudes of emergency department physicians and nurses toward implementation of an early warning score to identify critically ill patients: qualitative explanations for failed implementation.

Background: Sepsis, a common, time-sensitive condition, is sometimes not identified at emergency department (ED) triage. The use of early warning scores has been shown to improve sepsis-related screening in other settings.

Objectives: Our objective was to elucidate nurse and physician perceptions with the Hamilton Early Warning Score (HEWS) in combination with the Canadian Triage Acuity Scale.

Point-of-care ultrasound to diagnose appendicitis in a Canadian emergency department.

Objectives: Appendicitis is a common surgical condition that frequently requires diagnostic imaging. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) is the gold standard for diagnosing appendicitis. Ultrasound offers a radiation-free modality; however, its availability outside business hours is limited in many emergency departments (EDs).

Acute Management of the Traumatically Injured Pelvis.

Severe pelvic trauma is a challenging condition. The pelvis can create multifocal hemorrhage that is not easily compressible nor managed by traditional surgical methods such as tying off a blood vessel or removing an organ. Its treatment often requires reapproximation of bony structures, damage control resuscitation, assessment for associated injuries, and triage of investigations, as well as multimodality hemorrhage control (external fixation, preperitoneal packing, angioembolization, REBOA [resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta]) by multidisciplinary trauma specialists (general surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, endovascular surgeons/interventional radiologists).

Examining the utility of the Hamilton early warning scores (HEWS) at triage: Retrospective pilot study in a Canadian emergency department.

Objectives: Early warning scores use vital signs to identify patients at risk of critical illness. The current study examines the Hamilton Early Warning Score (HEWS) at emergency department (ED) triage among patients who experienced a critical event during their hospitalization. HEWS was also evaluated as a predictor of sepsis.

Treatment of Pediatric Diabetic Ketoacidosis in Canada: A Review of Treatment Protocols from Canadian Pediatric Emergency Departments.

Objective: Diabetes is the most common pediatric endocrine disorder, and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is the leading cause of diabetes-related morbidity and mortality. This article reviews pediatric DKA treatment protocols from across Canada and identifies similarities and differences.

Methods: Pediatric tertiary centres in Canada were asked for a copy of their DKA treatment protocol.

Self-criticism, dependency, and stress reactivity: an experience sampling approach to testing Blatt and Zuroff's (1992) theory of personality predispositions to depression in high-risk youth.

S. J. Blatt and D.

Rumination in response to stress as a common vulnerability factor to depression and substance misuse in adolescence.

The current study examined rumination in response to stress as a common vulnerability factor to both depression and substance use problems in adolescence. Specifically, we used a multi-wave longitudinal design to examine whether adolescents who tend to ruminate in response to stress exhibit increases in depressive symptoms and substance misuse following the occurrence of negative events. At time 1, adolescents (n = 161) completed measures assessing depressive symptoms, substance misuse, and the tendency to ruminate in response to stress.

Depressogenic inferential styles, negative events, and depressive symptoms in youth: an attempt to reconcile past inconsistent findings.

Research examining the diathesis-stress component of the hopelessness theory (HT) in youth has provided mixed support for the theory. One explanation for inconsistent findings is the failure to consider relationships among the three inferential styles posited to serve as vulnerability factors by the theory. The weakest link hypothesis posits that an individual is as vulnerable to depression as his/her most depressogenic inferential style (DIS) makes him/her.

Dysfunctional attitudes, self-esteem, and hassles: cognitive vulnerability to depression in children of affectively ill parents.

The current study tested the diathesis-stress component of Beck's [(1967). Depression: Clinical, experimental, and theoretical aspects. New York: Harper & Row, (1983).

The timing of parent and child depression: a hopelessness theory perspective.

This study examined whether children's inferential styles moderate the association between the onset of depressive symptoms in children and their parents. To provide a powerful test of our hypotheses, we utilized a high-risk sample (parents with a history of major depressive episodes and their children) and a multiwave longitudinal design. During the initial assessment, 140 children (ages 6 to 14) completed measures assessing depressogenic inferential styles.

The impact of parental borderline personality disorder on vulnerability to depression in children of affectively ill parents.

Children of parents with major depressive disorder (MDD) are four to six times more likely than other children to develop MDD. Little research has examined whether comorbid parental diagnoses further increase children's risk. This study examines whether children of parents with comorbid MDD and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) (1) are at greater risk for experiencing depressive symptoms and/or episodes and (2) whether such increased risk may be due, in part, to their exhibiting higher levels of cognitive/interpersonal vulnerability factors.