Evaluating soft collars in pre-hospital cervical spine immobilisation: A cohort study on neurological outcomes, patient comfort and paramedic perspectives.

Objective: Cervical spinal immobilisation procedures often include rigid cervical collars which, despite associated complications, may provide less immobilisation than previously thought. The present study reports the incidence of worsening neurological outcomes following soft collar application, and additionally reports patient comfort, compliance with spinal immobilisation, and paramedic perspectives on usage.

Methods: This was an observational cohort study conducted in selected metropolitan and regional areas of NSW Ambulance between 1 May 2022 and 31 March 2023.

Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation differences by sex - The role of arrest recognition.

Purpose: To assess whether bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) differed by patient sex among bystander-witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA).

Methods: This study is a retrospective analysis of paramedic-attended OHCA in New South Wales (NSW) between January 2017 to December 2019 (restricted to bystander-witnessed cases). Exclusions included OHCA in aged care, medical facilities, with advance care directives, from non-medical causes.

Comparing the Replication Fidelity of Solid Microneedles Using Injection Compression Moulding and Conventional Injection Moulding.

Polymer surfaces are increasingly being functionalized with micro- and nano- surface features using mass replication methods such as injection moulding. An example of these are microneedle arrays, which contain needle-like microscopic structures, which facilitate drug or vaccine delivery in a minimally invasive way. In this study, the replication fidelity of two types of solid polycarbonate microneedles was investigated using injection compression moulding and conventional injection moulding.

Applying contextual integrity to digital contact tracing and automated triage for hospitals during COVID-19.

To control and minimise the spread of COVID-19, various technological solutions have been proposed. In this research, we focus on digital contact tracing and automated triage for hospitals. We conducted an online survey in Flanders ( = 1708) to investigate the perceived appropriateness of these systems based on the Contextual Integrity framework, as developed by Nissenbaum [1].