Use of in situ simulation to evaluate the operational readiness of a high-consequence infectious disease intensive care unit.

On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the outbreak of a coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) was a public health emergency of international concern. The WHO guidance states that patients with (COVID-19) should be managed by staff wearing appropriate personal protective equipment; however, working whilst wearing personal protective equipment is unfamiliar to many healthcare professionals. We ran high-fidelity, in-situ simulation of high-risk procedures on patients with COVID-19 in a negative-pressure side room on our intensive care unit (ICU).

Which is more useful in predicting hospital mortality--dichotomised blood test results or actual test values? A retrospective study in two hospitals.

Background: Routine blood tests are an integral part of clinical medicine and in interpreting blood test results clinicians have two broad options. (1) Dichotomise the blood tests into normal/abnormal or (2) use the actual values and overlook the reference values. We refer to these as the "binary" and the "non-binary" strategy respectively.

Health technology assessment review: remote monitoring of vital signs--current status and future challenges.

Recent developments in communications technologies and associated computing and digital electronics now permit patient data, including routine vital signs, to be surveyed at a distance. Remote monitoring, or telemonitoring, can be regarded as a subdivision of telemedicine - the use of electronic and telecommunications technologies to provide and support health care when distance separates the participants. Depending on environment and purpose, the patient and the carer/system surveying, analysing or interpreting the data could be separated by as little as a few feet or be on different continents.