Comparison of the Aotearoa New Zealand Early Warning Score and National Early Warning Score to predict adverse inpatient events in a vital sign dataset.

Aotearoa New Zealand uses a single early warning score (EWS) across all public and private hospitals to detect adult inpatient physiological deterioration. This combines the aggregate weighted scoring of the UK National Early Warning Score with single parameter activation from Australian medical emergency team systems. We conducted a retrospective analysis of a large vital sign dataset to validate the predictive performance of the New Zealand EWS in discriminating between patients at risk of serious adverse events and compared this with the UK EWS.

Improving early detection of colorectal cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand; how do the direct access criteria perform?

Aim: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common malignancy in New Zealand, and there is increasing pressure on investigative resources for diagnosis. The national direct access referral guidelines from the Ministry of Health (MoH) guide who should be referred for investigation, but their performance in detecting CRC and other significant diseases has not been reported previously. This paper describes the yield, by direct access criterion, of all referrals through the direct access pathway to the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) during 2018.