Journal of Emergency Medicine, Trauma and Acute Care - 3 - Qatar Health 2020 Conference abstracts, January 2020

Welcome to this special issue of the Journal of Emergency Medicine, Trauma and Acute Care (JEMTAC) dedicated primarily to Qatar Health 2020 Conference and presenting a selection of abstracts on various topics in response to a late call for free paper oral or poster presentation submissions (Table 1). Qatar Health 2020 was a collaborative event between Hamad Medical Corporation and the Qatar Ministry of Public Health, chaired Read More

Background: A major incident is defined as any incident or event which due to its size, nature, and/or complexity, is likely to cause serious disruption to services and would potentially overwhelm the Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service (HMCAS) or one or more of HMC's hospitals as a result. Such an incident requires a coordinated response from multiple agencies including HMC (as well as corporate departments), other healthcar Read More

Background: Triage of victims in mass casualty incidents (MCI) is crucial in prioritizing care and allocating resources1. Triage skills are important to be evaluated for training and better preparedness. Using clinical vignettes is a well-known approach to evaluate clinicians’ knowledge and decision-making2. This study aims to evaluate preparedness of emergency residents and fellows to triage victims of MCI. Methods: Emergency Medici Read More

Background: A mass gathering (MG) is defined as a collection of at least 1000 people at a single location over one to several days or weeks1. Potential sites for a disaster include festivals, sporting events, conventions, refugee camps, globalization by travel, and might involve a wide range of age groups. The potential number of patients and illnesses or injuries is affected by environmental, biochemical, and psychological factors. Identified issu Read More

Background: Mass gathering is a risk factor for infectious diseases transmission. Therefore, rapid detection of infections is highly desirable. The current gold standard approach to detect bacterial infections in clinical samples (biological fluids) requires three days of bacterial culture to obtain the diagnosis and antibiotic sensitivity results1. This approach, although very accurate results in considerable delay in initiating proper treatment which incr Read More

Background: Point-of-care testing (POCT) facilitates rapid decisions by performing tests near or at the patient side. POCT integration accelerates clinical decisions and enhances patients’ standard of care in emergency settings. POCT positively influences patient care especially during life-threatening situations or in the operating rooms and critical care areas as it enables the rapid provision of information related to blood gases and electrol Read More

Background: Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service (HMCAS) Emergency Medical Dispatch Center uses protocols and processes ensuring early recognition and early telephone CPR (T-CPR) for Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) reported by the public through 999 emergency lines. An audit of random sampling cases indicated that the average time to start bystander hands-on CPR varies from 5 to 7 minutes. Consequently, a quality improve Read More

Background: Temperature, among several environment conditions like humidity, is known to impact medicine stability1,2. In emergency medical service (EMS) settings, it is often challenging to control these conditions. In the GCC region including Qatar, temperature and relative humidity values may rise over 50°C and 80%, respectively, according to climate data from the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority3. The aim of this systematic review is to c Read More

Background: Currently, Tuffier's line is considered the standard level for spinal anesthesia. Incorrect determination of this line may result in iatrogenic spinal cord injury1. The current study aims to compare the accuracy of the ultrasound versus clinical determination of the spinal level2,3, using X-ray as the standard for comparison. Methods: This prospective, randomized and controlled study included 200 adult patients of both genders and all Read More

Background: Performing a sciatic nerve block on trauma patients unable to be positioned in lateral or prone position is difficult, hence the anterior approach is better in such cases1. Using blind nerve stimulation has more risk of nerve trauma2. The aim of the current study was to compare block of the sciatic nerve with regards to the ease of performance, reliability and safety through the anterior approach by two methods; the first bein Read More

Background: Pain is a leading cause of visits to any emergency department (ED) and a large percentage of it is primarily caused by musculoskeletal trauma, however there has been a lack of use of analgesia in a large proportion of these patients1. Tramadol is a common choice among emergency residents due to the rare incidence of respiratory depression during its administration, low incidence of cardiac depression, and the incidence Read More

Background: Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in Qatar1. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a secondary prevention model of care for cardiac patients. It is well-documented that CR reduces cardiovascular morbidity and mortality by 20%2. However, CR is underutilized worldwide, with low enrolment and adherence rates3. This study aims to investigate factors associated with enrolment and adherence, and to examine the relati Read More

Background: The ‘Act FAST’ campaign is a major international stroke prevention program aiming to raise knowledge and awareness of stroke signs and symptoms and encouraging calling emergency medical service (EMS) providers as soon as symptoms are recognized.1 We aim to evaluate the impact of the campaign by analyzing EMS stroke calls in Qatar as studies on the impact of such initiative on behavioral response at onset are limited. Read More

Background: Experiential learning is the backbone of many healthcare professional education programs1, and the quality of experiential learning is dependent on the skills, experiences, and proficiency of the clinical preceptors who largely contribute to this experience2. Preceptors should ideally possess both clinical practice and teaching skills; however, preceptors often do not possess formal training as educators3. This research was Read More

Background: The healthcare domain is undergoing a major shift towards electronic health records (EHR) and data management as illustrated by the global trend in Figure 1 with a shift over recent times from passive technology adopters towards more investigators and explorers. There is a vital need for a universal patient record in a distributed ledger and new approaches to ensure collaborative health when we can manage our own welln Read More

Background: Over the years, the fragmented traditional risk management approach was replaced by a holistic view that is commonly identified by the literature as enterprise risk management. The comprehensive and integrative characteristic of this approach requires good communication through a reliable risk management information system to improve performance as well as provide an overall cost reduction by automating routine tas Read More

Background: The Trauma Center of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Qatar, aims to develop highly skilled specialized trauma nurses. The American Trauma Society highlights the importance of specialty courses for the professional development of trauma nurses1. All HMC trauma nurses are mandated to attend the Advanced Trauma Care Nursing (ATCN) course. While, this course focuses on the trauma golden hours and the life th Read More

Background: The prone ventilation technique has been newly adopted by HMC (Hamad Medical Corporation). The literature has revealed the effectiveness of the prone position technique to improve ventilation and oxygenation in traumatic and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) cases 1. The prone ventilation technique is a step before deciding a higher medical escalation 1. There were only a few trained and competent trau Read More