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AfCEM 2018 Day 1: How to get your research published: The 10 commandments

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Summary notes on talk given at AFCEM 2018 “Ten Commandments for getting your research published” by Dr Ellen Webber, Editor in Chief of Emergency Medicine Journal @emjeditor 


A large proportion of studies/research is not published. Improve your chances of getting your chances noticed. Put your best foot forward from the beginning.

  1. Always use a research checklist

Checklists assist you not only to organise your paper, but also to plan your research study. This also ensures that you collect all of the data from the outset. You can get more information and all checklists at the Equator Network, here. 

  1. Read and obey the instructions for authors

Does your article fit the mission of the journal and do they have a relevant article type for your research? Make sure you have met the requirements for each section.

  1. Sell your research question (in the introduction)

Outline the problem (not lack of knowledge), and say why it is important (the problem, not your study) and what the knowledge gap is. Mention how your study helps the situation of the identified knowledge gap. Avoid taking too long to get to the point of your research question, keep it short. The whole introduction should lead into your research study.

  1. Honour your methods

This is actually the most important part of your manuscript. The methods should demonstrate that you have done your study well by putting in enough detail that your study can be replicated from scratch (and use a checklist to guide the detail). Using sub-headings can assist with this.

 


5.1. Results: Who before what?

Begin with the demographics of the patients/participants that were involved in your study and this is normally reported in Table 1. If you lost patients to follow-up or similar be sure to show the demographic information of the group that was excluded to show that there was no selection bias.

5.2. Results: Match your methods and discussion

Make sure that you do not quote results that were not reported in your methods and vice versa. Do not use results in the discussion that was not reported in the results. Do not provide an interpretation of your results here. Stick to the facts only.

  1. Discuss and don’t ramble

Provide a brief, plain English summary of what your most important findings are – no numbers – here in the first two sentences of your study. Contextualise your study and mention how your results or study is different from previous studies and how you add to previously published literature. In addition, can you explain why you are observing this. Here, you can especially highlight how your results (from the LMIC setting) is different from other studies (from HICs).
Discuss the limitations plainly and honestly. Mention explicitly the implications of your study (think press release). The implications should be specific and if “more research is needed” mention exactly what should be asked or done.
Sell the research question, but not the result! You should set up the question so that a positive or negative finding is important. Do not try and spin negative results either! Interestingly, negative data are often statistically more trustworthy than positive data.

  1. Revise the abstract

Provide a short but compelling background statement. Your methods should generally be longer (dates, setting, inclusion criteria, outcomes and your type of analysis). For the results, firstly mention who is in your study and provide the result of your primary outcome. Your conclusion should in one or two sentences summarise your main result (as in the discussion) and one sentence regarding the implications of your result.

  1. Seek criticism

Give your paper to someone for constructive criticism who knows nothing about your study, but something about your field.

  1. Check your work

Check for typos and grammar issues by reading it without track changes. Make sure your tables match text and that your references are complete and in the format of the journal. Make sure that your word counts are in line with the author instructions.

  1. Submit and submit again

You have an ethical obligation to publish and disseminate your research. Research suggests that the number of submissions is not related to the quality of the research study. Most authors are not published because they give up too soon. Peer review should be considered as free mentoring, and learn from your mistakes.

  1. Submit again!

[Note from the blog editors: Interesting discussion in questions afterwards about researchers who are not first language English speakers. Need to find mentors who are willing to look at language NOT be authors on papers! There are paid services for this but there are other options such as Authoraid. https://www.authoraid.info/ If you are looking for help on your paper or are willing to assist authors please check them out! You may also want to look at the authorship guidelines by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors that outline the conditions for authorship contributions on a research article, here.]

For other posts/talk summaries click here

AfCEM 2018 – Day 1: Opening Plenaries & Education

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Two of the badEM crew Kat Evans & Willem Stassen attended the 4th African Conference of Emergency Medicine 7-9 November 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda. They are being assisted in blogging the conference also by Dr Clint Hendrikse(Cape Town) & Dr Mina Naguib (Manchester)
One concept that will likely run through this conference is the concept of Ubuntu. A person with Ubuntu is welcoming, hospitable, warm and generous, willing to share. Such people are open and available to others, willing to be vulnerable, affirming of others, do not feel threatened that others are able and good, for they have a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong in a greater whole – Desmond Tutu

Introductions:

The Rwandan Minister of Health Dr Diane Gashumba @DianeGashumba welcomed & opened the conference and spoke about breaking the barriers in emergency medicine & discussing concrete solutions to huge barriers to emergency care. It is fantastic to see the minister of health has such a great understanding of the importance of emergency care. Emergency Care forms part of multiple Rwandan policies as a priority area for development 2050. It is fantastic to see that the minister of health is a paediatrician, so she truly understands how critical emergency care is for the healthcare system and is reflected in her stressing the importance of healthcare worker wellbeing. 
Introductions were also made by Gabin Mbanjumucyo, to the first group of Rwandan Emergency Physicians to qualify: Bernard Nsengiyumva, Chantal Uwamohoro, Ernest Nahayo, Oliver Felix Umihire and Ezechiel Nteziryayo. 

Book: “Oxford AFEM Handbook of Acute and Emergency Care”

The new and exciting 2nd edition of this incredibly helpful handbook was launched at the event by the editors Prof Lee Wallis, Dr Keegan Checkett and Prof Teri Reynolds. The first edition was published in 2013 and was disseminated into the hands of frontline workers across Africa. The book was available to be bought at the conference and hopefully will be available to be bought online soon, keep an eye out for it on www.afem.info They are also looking for sponsors to help get more copies of the 2018 version printed and distributed.

Book/Resource/Training Course: “Basic Emergency Care: Approach to the acutely ill and injured”

Editors: Andy Tenner, Heike Geduld, Teri Reynolds, Nikki Roddie (some of whom are at this conference and were introduced). This incredible World Health Organisation #FOAMed resource was released this month. The full–text PDF version of book along with the slide–set for instructors are freely available below: https://www.who.int/emergencycare/publications/Basic-Emergency-Care/en/

Book/Resource/Training Course: “Emergency Unit management in low-resource settings”

A new WHO Training Course that is KEY in low resource settings was also launched. In Africa when an EM Physician or EM Nurse qualifies we suddenly have to step in and start or run a unit, often alone! We just aren’t trained for that. The entire course will become freely available soon as a #FOAMed resource. The slide–set, facilitator guide and student guide will become open access, as soon as peer review processes and refinement are complete (manyattendees of the conference are also involved in this process, African Solutions to African problems!) It helps that this resource is being published by the WHO because the credibility of the name can be used to advocate to your political decision-makers in ministries/departments of health.

Defining and building EM – using a moving target: James Ducharme (Canada & President of IFEM)

Canada

James is the current president of IFEM. He led with the comment, “EM is the poorest defined speciality ever developed”. Why did EM start? EM filled a gap – a lack of organised trauma systems (US and Canada). But gaps are different in Africa – therefore the definition of EM varies: a shifting scale of definition.

Training programmes do not teach residents/prepare them for what they actually are going to do: social issues, geriatrics, chronic pain, drug seeking, centre of last resort. Building blocks for EM systems are different in each country/setting – depending on the specific needs of the community and availability of resources. The basic building blocks are similar though. External experts are unable to define building blocks required. 
We should constantly state what we will NOT provide; we often advocate for all patients in the EC (including those not requiring emergency care), leading to us failing those who actually require EC. We have adopted maladaptive behaviours (because of failures in other systems) to the detriment of our patients. We should define emergency care in our setting and be the advocate for patients requiring emergency care.  We have become the safety net for the health system. Instead, we have to ask our health care managers, “What are YOU doing about these non-emergency issues?” 

Who we are, where we are going: The identity (r)evolution of emergency care in Africa – Dr Heike Geduld @heikegeduld (South Africa President of AFEM)

South Africa

The current fearless leader of AFEM, who will be, after this conference, handing over the reigns to Dr Ben Wachira from Kenya. [Personal note from Kat: Heike is one of my biggest role-models & I hope that one day I am 5% of what a phenomenally wise & inspiring person that she is].
So how/where did AFEM start? In 2009 AFEM started as a lunch-break meeting at another conference and the agenda/programme of the meeting was only the words “African Emergency Care.” Look how far they have come!
So what is AFEM? Heike mentions how it doesn’t feel like a society; “we don’t really know what it is.” Then how is it doing so much? “We are the sum of thousands of interconnected stories of EC across Africa, we are a community, the spirit of Ubuntu, a network of people constantly evolving organically in response to the needs of the community.
Check out the AFEM curriculum that was developed out of needs of the African EC community, here: https://afem.africa/resources/ 
Heike also mentioned 3 important concepts:
  1. ‘Servant Leadership’: which I love: it values diverse opinions, cultivates a culture of trust, develops leadership in others, encourages and, thinks about others. 
  2. ‘Agency’: Is our capacity to act independently and make our own choices. We need to claim our identity as African emergency care providers to increase our sense of agency.
  3. ‘Revolution’: In thinking about what AFEM is and does and what African Emergency Care wants to achieve, we need to think about what we CANNOT do. There are 40 countries in this room, the majority are clinicians, and our view of health is limited by our fairly clinical viewpoint. If we want to make bigger change, on a bigger level, we need to open our minds to broader viewpoints. Think about emergency care system development in conjunction with social welfare experts, politicians, engineers, epidemiologists, patients and multiple spheres of knowledge. How do we bring these other people in? We cannot do this alone, we need to pull in stories of emergency care from non-emergency care people. 

Unpacking the essential elements of emergency nursing in Africa: Petra Brysiewicz (South Africa) @petrabrysiewicz

South Africa

Petra Brysiewicz is a professor in the School of Nursing & Public Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. She has worked with research and education of health professionals in South Africa and Africa for 20 years, predominately in the area of acute/emergency care.
Successful emergency nursing programmes rely on six essential elements.
  1. Recognise nurses impact:
  • Nurses are well positioned for the emergency centre (biggest group of health professionals). They are incredibly trusted by communities; nurse practitioners are well trusted by patients. Evidence suggests that nurse practitioners outscore other health providers with regards to quality of care and patient satisfaction. Trauma nurse practitioners – evidence that they decrease LOS, patient satisfaction, and complications. 
  1. Essential knowledge and skills:
  • Great strides were made with regards to nursing education challenges and solutions in Sub– Saharan Africa however, strategic leadership and mentors are required.
  • Self–assessment survey of nurses in Kwazulu Natal: only 52% competent to perform CPR, 64% to assess GCS,42% to administer drugs in cardiac arrest.
  • Outdated and static curriculum and a mismatch between needs and curricula becoming a barrier to effective education.
  • Developing a framework for emergency nursing practice in Africa; social accountability is a essential for transforming nursing education – link to article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2012.09.001
  • New type of learners – with different needs and strengths – Curricula should be dynamic and adaptive.
  1. Research and Scholarship:
  • Researchophobia – research need to be demystified.
  • PHD vs doctor of nursing practice (practice scholar vs research scholar) –  new PhD in practice, instead of research – great for nursing leaders in Africa.
  • Qualitative research undervalued: evidence that inform recommendations.
  1. Career pathing and role models
  2. Be innovative 
  • Blue skies thinking – no limits (old ways don’t open new doors)
  1. Make nurses visible:
  • Nurses “operate under the radar” – they are trained to be silent; The public and media unaware of the importance of nursing; traditional subservience still common;  The media ignores nurses – don’t really understands what nurses do – a good example is the Thailand Cave Rescue – very little emphasis on the nurse that was part of the team. 
These 6 elements play an important role in a successful nursing programme.

Stream 1: Novel education methods

Medical education during the digital era – Prof Stephen Rulisa (Rwanda)

Rwanda

Things have changed & suddenly educators were caught unaware!  The world of IT is changing faster than the teachers’ ability to change. As educators we need to catch up to ensure to try and keep up with the learners! Get your material onto facebook! The students can be found “inside of the book of faces more than the books of the university!“
Interesting move at Prof Rulisa’s university: Teachers who are not uploading their teaching onto the university IT sharing platform lose points on their performance reviews! Forcing “old school” educators to catch up with the times!

Teaching procedures in EM: 7 steps to success: Mindi Guptill

United States

Traditionally in medical school we all have heard “see one, do one, teach one”. This was the mantra that was used but this mantra breaks down in emergency medicine. Mindi discussed a 7 step process for procedural teaching.
  1. Conceptualisation (at home) – preparation to learn the procedure, indications, contraindications, patient counselling. We can do this but simply getting the student to read something, eg procedure textbook or FOAM resource such as LITFL
  2. Visualisation (at home) – view the procedure in its entirety eg video 
  3. Verbalisation – instructor should talk-through entire procedure step by step, learner to narrate it back, this cements the correct sequence
  4. Guided Practice – in a step-wise fashion, from sub-component practice to linkage practice. Do microskills, break up the procedures into smaller parts and teach components separately. Some microskills can be practiced at home!
  5. Feedback – to facilitate perfect practice, do not let them do it wrong, stop them so they don’t get motor-imprinting of incorrect practice.  Can also consider video for feedback.
  6. Skill Mastery – repeat practice regularly, spaced repetition
  7. Autonomy – do on real patient!

Simulation Education: Simple solutions for effective education: Dustin Smith

Three key messages:
  1. skills acquired from simulation can be transferred to real patients
  2. simulations do not have to be expensive to be effective
  3. commitment from learners and a safe environment 
Dunning-Kruger Effect: Students in the lower quadrant of performance often have a perception that they know a lot more than they do. Difficult to reset their goals.
Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve: lose 40% in 20 minutes 
Spaced Repetition – repeating training of a skill over time – better retention with every repeat.
NERDS approach to teach simulation
  • Nickel down – investment ensures engagement – “why do you think the baby passed out?”
  • Evidence – “what do you think the literature suggest around…”
  • Rules – lay down rules at the begging
  • Do – guided practice of skill
  • Stop – as soon as a mistake is made – and correct immediately
Feel safe to make mistakes: students need to feel safe and comfortable to make mistakes and learn. Introduction to session should include a discussion around this. 
Psychological fidelity vs engineering fidelity  (how well does this mannikin look like the real deal) High fidelity simulation not always better.

Breaking barriers in #MedEd: Better educator… better clinician: Janis Tupesis

Janis brought some insights on the changing paradigm in how we share information. We don’t need to remember Ransons Criteira anymore, we can ask Siri! Everyone is collating/crowdsourcing information.. governments, university. Allows you to connect to your peers and share what you are doing in real-time.
Some thoughts: 
  1. Shared social networks that focus on emergency care in Africa – clinical care, education, leadership & development
  2. Shared online educational resources that are specific to emergency care in Africa
  3. The use of tech to further develop implement locally applicable educational materials, clinical guidelines &research programs.
  4. Better together!

Postgraduate EM teaching in Botswana: Megan Cox

Australia

Megan is previous head of department in Botswana and led the programme that recently graduated 3 EM Physicians: They are all close to my [Kat] heart in Cape Town as they completed some of their specialist rotations in our programme. Botho, Sebakeng & Kago are fantastic EM Physicians and we are super proud of them! Megan worked for 4-6 years as the only specialist EM Physician in the country!
Lesson 1: EM education needs an EM culture: Needs an appropriate workplace, space, equipment, triage, guidelines, clinical EM educators, students need to see EM in action
Lesson 2: Everyone needs EM education. Megan spoke about the 3min “elevator pitch” about EM that she gave to minister of health when she became ill and presented to the Emergency Centre! Clarify to everyone the EM role & expertise. Get EM education, introductions for all the hospital, engage prehospital providers, nursing and medical students (final year best to allow collation of knowledge from other departments)
Lesson 3: Don’t assume EM knowledge, start with basics but also don’t reinvent wheel! Don’t try create all your own guidelines from scratch! Other guidelines you can use www.emergencymedicinekenya.org / www.afem.africa/resources / EM Guidance www.emct.info/em-guidance.html/ FAME/FOAM / new WHO coursementioned above / AFEM handbook
Lesson 4: EM education is a team sport
  • Collaborative training – Involve other departments when you are the only EMP in country. Don’t try to do it all yourself!
  • Vary the modality of educational interventions: lectures case presentations, quizzes esp ECG, radiology, use PBL, praatical sessions, trial exams, watch videos, journal club (AFJE), sims, M&M meetings
  • Be careful of well-meaning international speakers who don’t understand the healthcare context. Need to guide & direct the content & discussions regarding suitability of management, equipment knowledge, cultural appropriateness. Teaching on completely unobtainable interventions can make students despondent.
Lesson 5: EM Research is challenging (and you need lots of help!) [ Kat: new residency programmes can consider engaging www.authoraid.info ]
Lesson 6: The “soft skills” can be much more like “hard skills” in the African context. When a new EM Physician qualifies they are likely to be a head of department. Leadership, management of complaints, conflict resolutions, medical professionalism and recognition of diagnostic biases are critical. [Kat: The WHO course mentioned in the first talk will hopefully be a great resource for this]

No more snores from the back of the Room: Transform your classroom teaching for better student retention and attention: Amelia Pousson (USA)

United States

Fascinating talk FULL of pearls of wisdom. Great framework adapted from learningscientists.org. Incredibly simplified take-home points below.
  1. Find the love – Earn attention from the classroom with our own enthusiasm and motivation. It cost nothing to be enthusiastic. There are two types of learners: fixed mindset vs growth mindset.
  2. Interleaving – Switch between ideas while teaching, we cant really focus beyond 15mins. Go back over the ideas again in different orders to strengthen your understanding
  3. Concrete examples: Use specific examples to understand abstract ideas
    1. If you know that a particular case/medical problem is hard to manage or badly managed: ask students to“collect” those cases & bring them to class. In business they use Harvard Business Review, some options in EM to use are JETem http://jetem.org/ & CPC https://westjem.com/cpc_em
  4. Elaboration: Explain & describe ideas with many details

SMACC SYDNEY

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SMACC Sydney 25 - 29 March 2019

SMACC Sydney…… “Will be the best SMACC yet”

Ticket Ballot opens in just over 8 hours….

Don’t miss out, register on the SMACC Website on Monday

The greatest conference!!

I attended my first SMACC in 2016 and man it was great!!!!

A community of people that truly believe in sharing their knowledge, empowering other people to educate just as well or even better than what they do.

I want to say come and attend this conference and learn, but that will not be true. Come and attend this conference and become part of a community of learning.

SMACC 2019 will see our very own @kat__evans speak on the main stage.

Hope to see you there.

badEM Team

Trending Towards Togetherness

Ubuntu

We are still so proud of Annet Alenyo’s talk about UBUNTU last year…..

#badEMfest18: Human/kind – Andy Tagg

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Guest Author: Andy Tagg

When Kat Evans came and spoke at DFTB17 on the state of emergency medicine in South Africa she was all abuzz about this new conference that the badEM crew were going to put on. As she had made the effort and travelled all the way to Australia I thought it only right to return the favour. I’d said that I was happy to speak about “anything paediatric” but I think the team only read the word “anything”.

I’d often written about the importance of the soft skills in medicine but to talk about “How to be kind” and in just 15 minutes? That was a real challenge.

So I delved into the literature about the benefits of kindness – to ourselves and to others. I found out how it made us live longer, healthier and happy lives and I came up with a way to frame it so we could all practice a little kindness every day.

Stop

Put your notes down and pay attention to the person in front of you. Commit to giving them your time and attention.

Look

Actually look at your patient – look them in the eyes. We make hundreds of non-verbal cues every minute. If you don’t look at them then you won’t see them.

Listen

Don’t interrupt. Doctors generally interrupt their patients within 18 seconds of the start of the consultation. Try to listen without judgement, allow the patient to talk out their piece and clarify your understanding of the situation.

Think

Everyone has a story to tell. To most of our patients this visit to the doctors is the most important thing that will happen to them this year, if ever. Try and put yourself in their place.

Just by doing these four things then we can be a little kinder – to our patients, to ourselves and to our partners.

Watch the full presentation from the conference below!

If you want to know more then you can read my blog posts on the why and how of kindness over at www.dontforgetthebubbles.com

Andy Tagg is an Emergency Physician with a special interest in education and lifelong learning. Andy is one of the founding members of the excellent pediatric blog Don’t Forget The Bubbles. Read more from Andy here. 

Dare to research

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There is a paucity of scientific evidence originating from the African continent. (1) For evidence emanating from Africa, African researchers have very poor access to these publications. (1) In addition, the context within the African continent and other low- to middle-income countries,  are vastly different to that of higher-income countries, and the evidence produced in these settings may not be transferrable to us. (More on this here).

For these reasons it is essential for African researchers to start generating our own evidence that is applicable to our own context. A couple of barriers have been identified to performing research in the African EM setting. (2) These mainly include a lack of funding, training and time. (2) Let’s be fair, the amount of patients that we need to see with limited resources, makes research an unachievable luxury. But research does not have to be complicated. We don’t have to start with the multi-national, multi-centre, prehospital randomised controlled trial. Start with describing what is happening in your specific system, or what resources you have to work with, or what patients you see. There are many examples of these published in AfJEM, Africa’s only EM journal. This kind of data is essential so that we can continue gaining contextual insight and, you cannot solve a problem which you have not yet described or do not understand yet.

In this manner, research might be easier than you think!

I recently did a podcast at #badEMfest18 on this topic in prehospital care, with FOAMmedic.

  1. Bruijns S, Maesela M, Sinha S, Banner M. Poor Access for African Researchers to African Emergency Care Publications: A Cross-sectional Study. West J Emerg Med. 2017;18(6):1018–24. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5811%2Fwestjem.2017.8.34930. PMID: 290855321.
  2. van Hoving DJ, Brysiewicz P. African emergency care providers’ attitudes and practices towards research. African J Emerg Med. 2017;7(1):9–14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2017.01.003.

#badEMfest18: Do they know its EM? – Heike Geduld

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Do they know it's EM?

A few months ago I was approached to do a talk on global Emergency Medicine (EM) at the then still mythical BadEMfest. My comfort zone is Afripositive EM and the trigger for the talk actually came from a discussion with a colleague who is an amazing EM physician and person, and listening to him being overawed and insecure in the face of visitors, to the point of questioning what he has to give.  The aim of the talk was to inspire and motivate and to remind Africans to own our version of EM, our knowledge and experiences – to feel “good enough”.

The message of the talk is simple.

Authentic African EM

EM should be appropriate to context, to the needs of the population we serve. In SA, that means that much of our priorities in teaching and policies should be around infectious diseases, trauma and non-communicable disease.

Woke EM.

EM should be responsive to the racial and social injustices within society and more specifically in our profession. In South Africa EM training struggles with recruiting Black African candidates. There are only 7 Black Emergency Physicians out of 125 registered. We need to work at understanding why this is. There are also issues around race, gender, religion and sexual orientation that we need to deal with. We need to be conscious of our own biases and how our view of the world is shaped by Western views and media.

Proudly African EM.

We should be proud of what we have achieved in developing EM in South Africa and the rest of Africa.

There is no right way to be an EM doctor, nurse or paramedic. We cannot judge ourselves by the standards of another population, another resourced system or another healthcare culture. We only need to be what is needed here and now. And it’s okay to have Christmas with snow or with sunshine!

Heike Geduld

Heike Geduld is a proudly African Emergency Physician working in Cape Town, South Africa.

An Update on Emergency Care in South Africa

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As part of the EMSSA/ECCSA conference in Sun City we attended an update on where we are with the Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) in the Emergency Care field of South Africa. 
Introducing the topic Michael McCaul (researcher from the Centre for Evidence-based Health Care, Stellenbosch University) gave us an overview of his research on the perceptions of the prehospital industry on the new CPGs in order to strengthen guideline uptake by engaging with decision makers like the HPCSA and National Department of Health (NDoH). 
This was followed with Maryna Venter making a very good case for the need for specilisation of critical care retrieval practitioners. 
Finally Ben van Nugteren gave us an update about where the current CPG updates are and what aspects are holding back possible implementation. 

Strengthening Guideline uptake – equipping decision makers for evidence informed policy 

Michael McCaul (Twitter: @MikeMcCaul3)
Michael introduced the background and rationale leading up to his research. The main aim was to explore the perceptions of prehospital providers regarding the dissemination and implementation of the new Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) with the South African context. To this end, the results should guide decision makers (like National Department of Health (NDoH) + HPCSA) to better disseminate and implement the new guidelines in a manner that will support the prehospital profession.  This project used implementation research methods, a process where decision makers are involved from the outset, so that the evidence translates to real change in policy, downstream. 
Michael emphasised that this research is a snapshot in time but gives useful themes to help us understand what influenced providers perceived perceptions of the CPGs. He said it’s like understanding what things influence the lens by which prehospital providers view the guidelines and how those perceptions and expectations influence our perceived reality. 
Michael noted that they identified key factors that influenced emergency care providers perceptions of the guidelines: 
  • Emergency Medical Services (EMS) history and different qualifications
  • Previous exposure and experience with CPGs
  • Our expectations
  • How providers were communicated with 
This resulted in three main perceived realities regarding the guidelines:
  1. Providers were excited about the increase in scope and the new opportunities
  2. Concern and disappointment as skills were removed (like intubation) and paramedics felt they lost their identity, or have become redundant
  3. Educational and financial constraints for upskilling were introduced
Michael also highlighted various barriers and facilitators regarding both dissemination and implementation of the guidelines emphasised by prehospital providers:
Lastly, Michael told us about the next steps of this project which is currently underway – engaging with national decision makers (NDoH, HPCSA PBEC, Higher education institutions, Industry employers and professional societies like the Emergency Care Society of South Africa) on disseminating the results and doing workshops  to produce implementable solutions. He noted the PBEC are aware of the results and he will be further corresponding with them to strengthen the uptake of the guidelines for all. Michael reiterated that guideline implementation is a long and difficult process and that the first step is to engage stakeholders to be part of the solution. Michael and the team will provide feedback of the stakeholder engagements once that phase has been completed in late 2017, early 2018. 
Michael also presented on the methods and lessons learnt in producing the original CPG as a methodologist for the AFEM core guideline panel. 

Critical Care Transfers (retrieval) – Moving Forward

Maryna Venter (ECP ALS paramedic with special interest in neonatal ICU retrieval and transportation)
A move toward specialization in care in SA emergency medical services.

Spaghetti defines Critical Care for EMS: “Dynamic comprehensive care of the patient with an acute or chronic illness needing transportation”
The challenge with an improving healthcare system, sicker patients are staying alive for longer, and the management of these patient is getting more and more complex.
Critical Care retrieval is becoming more about escalating care and managing the incredibly sick patient from an already high level of care to another specialised level of care, in a moving environment, with even more challenges than we ever expected.

 
Transportation of the critical care patient MUST be either an upgrade in care, or continuation of care at the level at which the patient is currently managed. If we have all the fancy toys and vents, and pumps and ECMO, who is or should be managing the process? Internationally combination teams appear to be the standard, in Africa, the resources are limited, and a multi-system approach may be impossible.
So who should be doing these transfers? THE NERD… the one who has done the additional work, reading, practical skill acquisition. 

 

 Maryna reiterated that “load and go” for these incredibly sick patients is probably NOT the best approach to management, as the critical care patient has multi-faceted needs.
Equipment must be specialised to account for the sick patient – we cannot be downgrading the level of care for transportation to upgrade for additional level of care in another facility.

 

So the bottom line for retrieval and out of hospital critical care in South Africa is clearly going to be a challenge, change is inevitable and in doing so we are going to have to challenge some established practice. Change is coming, it’s going to be good, but at times it will be tough.

 

Out-of-hospital Clinical Practice Guideline

Ben Van Nugteren discussed the current process on the Clinical Practice Guidelines.
Disclaimer – The discussion and update provided today is based on his capacity as the Chair of the Clinical Advisory Committee at the PBEC, and cannot be viewed as the full Board’s view. 
Misperception 
Ben gave some context to the Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs). There was an incorrect perception that the CPGs were “leaked” to only certain emergency care providers. This was an unfortunate perception as the CPGs were circulated to employers, professional bodies and societies, educational institutions and via the PBEC website. Unfortunately, as a result of an administrative hurdle, the research methodology section was not uploaded with the actual CPGs. As a matter of interest by law, formal communication to registered professionals needs to occur via registered post, and the PBEC realised the time and costs linked to such an approach would not be feasible. With the modernisation of the PBEC business processes, this arduous task will hopefully be streamlined going forward. There was never an intention to “hide’ the document from anyone.
Commentary
This was the first time the PBEC had undertaken a task like this inviting open comment via email, once again demonstrating the PBEC’s willingness to receive feedback from prehospital providers.  Approximately 90 comments were made, whereupon the PBEC categorised the comments according to themes (i.e. education related, personal views/expressions, implementation etc). Many of the comments centered around the fact that the identity of providers was linked to their list of capabilities. The PBEC sees this as an important factor, but it cannot be seen in isolation. The question of professional identity linked with an endotracheal tube is not in the public’s interest, but rather, whether or not that endotracheal tube is “good for the member of public”. To date, that question remains unanswered, globally. Simply put, the test is, “is the intervention good for the member of the public, not whether there is skill proficiency”. 
Implementation (Not Yet – Too much redtape)
Regarding implementation, the PBEC has engaged with universities regarding the implementation of the CPGs within the curriculum of the programmes offered within that space. This is easily done as part of an already existing evidence-based approach to clinical education. Regarding CPG implementation for the other tiers of qualification, regulatory bodies such as the Medicines Control Council are closely working with the PBEC to determine a controlled, legal process leading to implementation. All of these changes in practice require regulatory grounding. An important question that the PBEC is pondering – what level of responsibility, accountability and ownership do independently registered professionals have within this CPG process.
In closing, the PBEC stressed that the CPG implementation can only be successfully implemented in the presence of robust emergency service regulations.
 

This post was co-created during the EMSSA/ECSSA conference that took place in Sun City.

Peadiatric burns: A summary of emergency treatment

150 150 Jo Park-Ross

Interested in learning more?

The South African Burns Society runs excellent courses teaching the emergency treatment of severe burns. The courses are aimed at doctors, nurses and paramedics.

Click here to learn more.

EMSSA Day 1 review – Co-created with #badEM

150 150 Craig Wylie

EMSSA day 1

So we are off with day 1. This is EMS day and so we have a number of streams addressing the 
world of prehospital, emergency centre and critical care. 
As ever you can’t get to everything so apologies to those we have missed from the review. Here’s the notes from day 1, co-created with a great team of delegates. For more on co-creation skip to the bottom of the post (it’s a great way of putting conference reports together).
Be warned, this is a long post as there is a lot of content from some great speakers.

The future of EMS in South Africa

First up Christopger Stein talked about a possible future for EMS. It was Blade Runner-esque with a vision of an EMS system based on apps, technology and machine learning. A world where technology will make the decisions of who, when and why people may interact with EMS systems. This theme fits with other talks we’ve seen at other conferences. Simon Carley talked about this at SMACC in Dublin and Bryan Burns and friends demonstrated this with an amazing demo at SMACC in Berlin. 

This talk was a little differnet to past talks on the future of emergency care though. Whilst others have talked about technology enhancing current systems Christopher too the perspective of a system that is already challenged, and which is likely to become more challenged, overwhelmed even. Change has to happen.
Elon Musk “Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.” 
Elon Musk: If something is important enough you should try, even if the probable outcome is failure.
Shaheem de Vries took this on and talked about why SA might have adopted a US model for EMS which may not be suitable for the African setting. It’s not always about saving lives, it’s mostly about transportation and logistics. So this raises questions about what we are teaching in the EMS education. We don’t seem to get complaints about clinical care, but we do get complaints about being late, being rude, being unavailable. Those are logistics issues which is interesting. It’s not our personal image of being an EMS/EM provider. Perhaps we need to wake up and really embrace the patient perspective of the service as a whole and not just focus on the coll resuscitation stuff.


This was very much a thoughtful presentation about what we are really trying to achieve in EMS in Africa. Simply tranplanting a US/European/Aus model of care may not be the right thing to do. A talk with more questions than answer, but REALLY important questions. To take the Blade Runner analogy further, EMS in SA cannot be a replicant of something else. Christopher and Shaheem propose a consensus conference to get interested parties together to create a shared vision for SA EMS. 

Craig Wylie on violence against EMS


Starting with an incredibly powerful video on the problems of violence against paramedics. He talks through the experience of responding to a call when one of his paramedics was shot.
Is the solution tactical paramedics? Should we arm paramedics and turn them into SWAT teams? Craig argues not. It’s not possible to do and probably unsustainable.
Even police escorted ambulances are at risk, they might be attacked even if protected by armed police. 
So what can be done? Clearly we can’t do nothing. EMS personnel are at risk and need protection. 


One solution is to work with the police, to train with the police to become more situationally aware about any circumstance they might find themselves in. Petrol bombs, bullets, hijacking etc. All are covered in the curriculum with the intention of not turning EMS into SWAT teams, but rather to work with the police to understand what to do when work turns ugly. 
Then there is the community. Both Craig and delegates talked about the power of community to protect EMS personnel. Communities with strong leadership who don’t accept violence against EMS will always be more able to help protect. Far more powerful than any course or training package. 


Craig also talked about the idea of areas where EMS cannot enter because it’s simply too dangerous. Truly a terrifying vision for a Brit like me, and a real eye opener about delivering high quality care under exceptionally difficult circumstances. 

Non-Invasive Ventilation

Willem Stassen compared non-invasive ventilation to the avocado. Summary on the indications, contraindications and best options for the use of non-invasive ventilation “there are two types of people in the world, those who like avocados, and those who should”, the same applies to non-invasive ventilation”
Pearls for initiating NIV:
Monitoring must be available (at least SPO2 and if possible ABG)
Haemodynamics must be intact (or at least there must be some effort to managing perfusion prior to initiating)
NIV is a good bridge to intubation (especially in the neonatal population)
Dont use NIV 
  • In the apneic patient (or the dead patient)
  • Life threatening hypoxia (close to a crash airway where there is not time to set up the NIV) 
  • Upper airway issues
  • Undrained tension pnuemothorax
  • Bowel obstruction
Willem made it clear that the value of NIV in the pre-hospital setting for the right patient at the right time in the right condition. 
The systems approach to the application of NIV is vital, the drop off site and optimising of care in the receiving facility must be a system of care, education, resources and equipment must be present within the whole system to support the ongoing management of the patient.

Pre-hospital Analgesia

Ben van Nugtering 
Took us back to basics with the physiology of pain and why pain is so important in emergency care. At the bedside, the physiology becomes a bit more simple.
To answer better pain management in the prehospital environemnt, this was broken down into 3 major thought processes:
  1. Nociceptive (the place where the pain is initially felt, also called inflammatory soup)
  2. Perception (in the brain)
  3. Neuropathic (how the sensation is integrated)
Acute events that couse pain, quite commonly leads to chronic pain, this means we need to pay attention to the way in which acute pain is managed to prevent the progression to chronic pain later. If the pain is not managed AGGRESSIVLY and early in the pre-hospital setting, the risk of development of chronic pain increases. Chronic pain is a multi-system stress response mediated by cortisol. Chronic pain has long term cognitive and psychological effects (commonly PTSD).
Optimising prehospital pain management?
  • Stop pain locally
  • Stop pain regionally (neuropathic component)
  • Prevent pain from reaching the brain
  • Change pain perception in the brain
Step-wise approach to pain management
  • There is no ONE agent that is best for any particular pain, the approach is about preventing transition to chronic pain
  • Multi-modal approach to pain management (allows decreased doses of each agent)
Options for pre-hospital pain management in SA is limited… more agents needed to address the multi-modal approach to pain management. 
Regional management in the pre-hospital setting:
  • Paracetamol
  • Methoxyflurane (Penthrox)
  • NSAIDS
Other options for perception of pain
  • Fentanyl
  • Ketamine
  • Entonox
  • Morphine
  • Methoxyflurane
  • Benzodiazepines


In SA pain medications for pre-hospital use are only allowed for specific indications, this is mandated by law. 
Barriers to better pain management?
  • Education and training (changing curriculum to accommodate new information)
  • Willingness to change (fear of changing the way we do things)
  • Clinical governance and monitoring system
  • Regulatory control (system and provider perspective)
  • Public participation and input (as well as patient education)
  • Cost (to get access to medication that is costly)
  • Continuity of care (continuum of analgesia through the multiple systems of care)

The failing heart

Dr Jacques Malan on the failing heart. This kicked off with some amazing videos of acute heart failure management in the ED. All with patient’s permissions as stated at the conference. 
Lots on managing HF in the ED, but started with the really important point that the ED can be a point of intervention for public health interventions. Check the BP of your patients and look at any ECG for any signs of LVH. If you do find hypertension then don’t just ignore it. Look for causes as if it’s secondary hypertension you can perhaps make a life changing intervention. At St.Emlyn’s we totally agree that public health is something that we should do.
If no secondary cause then
  • Modify risk factors
  • Ensure follow up
  • Prevent further damage


For those patients who do turn up in the ED with symptoms of heart failure than POCUS ECHO is a really effective tool to discriminate between causes and severities. Many patients might get wheeled into the ED with signs and symptoms that might not obviously be heart failure. Beware the young patient wheeled into the ED on a nebuliser who just does not look right, without wheeze or fever. Jacques asks us to be Sherlock in such cases. Feel the peripheries, are they warm or cool, get a CXR, get an ECG and really look at it for signs of chronic heart failure/hypertension etc. 
Jacques went on to talk about specific heart failure management and I liked what I heard in that he advocates a strategy aimed at the particular patient in front of you. There is no one size fits all recipe for acute heart failure. Be clever, be wise and be specific, in essence and in Jacque’s words ‘don’t fail the heart’.

5 ECG diagnoses not to miss

Kamil Vallabh whom I met early this year talked on 5 ECG diagnoses not to miss. This guy is a legend. An incredible clinician and ECG guru. 
This practical session started with 7 rules for ECGs
  1. Is there a reason not to do an ECG
  2. One ECG is never enough
  3. If it looks weird, check the K+
  4. Every blip on the ECG has to be explained
  5. Look at the company an ECG keeps (look at all the leads)
  6. It’s all about the shape, curve and morphology.
  7. Don’t forget about the patient!
Don’t write non-diagnostic ECG – it’s not the ECG that’s not diagnostic – it’s arguably the diagnostician.
So what about the 5 diagnoses that we should not miss?
  1. Tall T-waves in V1 (especially with a lower amplitude in V6). Look at the proportionality agasint the size of the R-wave – It’s probably ACS.
  2. You CAN DIAGNOSE AMI in RBBB. Surprisingly lots of people think you can’t, but you can. Check our this link to Steve Smith’s blog.
  3. Don’t miss a posterior AMI. If you think anterior ischaemia, stop and reconsider. Get some posterior leads and consider whether there is a circumflex lesion.
  4. Look for abnormal inverted U waves in the patient with chest pain. A new one to me, more here on LITFL.
  5. Abnormal morphology matters even if the ST elevation does not meet criteria. This is especially significant if you have odd looking morphology with T wave inversion in aVL. Look at aVL and check for T-wave inversion. Example here on Steve Smith’s blog.
I think Kamil’s talk is really important if we are to think about what difference an EM consultant makes. There is little added value in spotting barn door diagnoses, what matters is spotting the subtle and the difficult. That’s where we can really make a difference.
This talk encouraged us to ask, “is there a reason NOT to do an ECG?”. If not, then the patient should get one. They are done automatically at triage by HCAs on almost every majors patient I see in the UK, but at my current South African hospital doing ECGs is doctors job, and it can be hard to find a private space to do them. Having said that, it being hard work is not a valid reason not to do one!
KEYNOTE- Tim Cunningham on moving through suffering towards resilience.
Resilience is a hot topic in emergency care at the moment. Tim took us back to the reasons why we started in medicine, often they were altruistic, empathic and caring. Yet the reality of medicine may be different. Many docs lose their empathy, many nurses leave in the first year, and here in South Africa there are high rates of burnout in EMS teams.
Tim talks honestly about the sense of detachment that can come with facing the challenges of trauma and acute care. Detachment may be a tool, but is it a healthy and compassionate one? 
Tim claims he is a clown (he’s so much more – just look here), taking us through an exercise in creating laughter in the room. You could feel the room lift and get interested. Mood matters when you want to educate people, and also when you want to engage with patients. As a paeds nurse he has worked across the globe, including in the Ebola response in West Africa.


In West Africa he found himself detached from the extreme situation he found himself in. It caused him to reflect on hpw we normalise the circumstances we find ourselves in, how that normalisation might pull us away from the compassion that was so important when we originally chose our career path. Why is then that we don’t train for compassion? Why don’t we plan for and understand how we might retain the compassion and empathy (maybe empathy – they are not the same) that is so important to improving the qualirty of health care.

Self care is the idea that we recognise that we can do things to look after ourselves. We’ve done a lot about this on St.Emlyn’s with the wellness series if you want to know more. 
Tim advocates that yoga and meditation can improve compassion which links to Scott Weingart’s talk at SMACC. Having said that, meditation and yoga takes time and we are busy people.

In terms of practical ideas im talked to us about the ‘Medical Pause’. The idea begind this is to use silence to honour those who die in our care. You can hear more about this below. Tim tells us it is practiced in the US and icnreasingly around the world, and notably here in SA.


I do understand this idea as the end of a resus is a strange time, a slightly odd set of circumstances before we are expected to move on. I guess this won’t be for everyone, but that’s not the point, If it’s important for some of the team, then it’s something the team should support. Marking a moment in time and the deceased persons life might help us move on to the next pateint and problem. I also think that if the family are present it might be incredibly important for them. Tim makes the point that this is not a religious act (although it could be if that’s your belief), it is arguably just as relevant to a humanist view.


This talk has certainly made me pause and reflect on how we manage the end of resuscitations when they are not successful. This is not debriefing, it’s respect. It’s free, it’s quick, it’s kind and may help a whole range of people. Tim’s talk begs the question – why wouldn’t you pause?

David Stanton on the extinction of the dinosaur.

David is an EMS clinical manager in South Africa for Netcare. Here’s his work website, and you can follow him on Twitter here 
The aim of this talk was to consider why there are fewer older paramedics here in SA? These are the dinosaurs that are missing, some have gone abroad (notably the Middle East), some have left EMS, others have moved into more 9-5 jobs. However, acute work stress and burnout appears to be a real problem amongst SA paramedics. Recent studies state that it’s up to 25% of EMS providers are burned out and leaving.

So what needs to be done? We need to think about different career paths, change the end game from retirement to portfolio careers. To support older EMS staff to retrain and requalify so that they can have adaptable and agile careers. 
TIm also talks about the advances in technology that might be leaving some people behind. Interestingly he talks about how the new generation of learners are technology users who are trying to connect, rather than being driven by the tech itself. I agree withthis as an intpretation of us being in the social age as described by Julian Stodd.

Although clearly aimed at SA EMS teams, the thoughts and ideas here are probably applicable to many other countries and specilaities.

SEPSIS CARE

Willem Stassen
Theme for this talk was really about applying Sepsis 3.0 in a pragmatic way, to allow for best outcome in the pre-hospital environment. No avocado’s in this talk 🙂
The major message through this talk was early recognition and early management for the patient who presents with sepsis (or possible sepsis). The challenges around use of sepsis screening tools in the pre-hospital environment (or even resources limited settings) were discussed and explained.
Sepsis can possibly be identified at the dispatch interface, understanding that the low resource setting, identification of sepsis on dispatch might assist with sending the correct vehicle and resources to the correct patient at the correct time. The themes  around dispatch information and sepsis recognition are too broad to enable the specific diagnosis of sepsis on the phone.
In SA language is a real challenge, with 11 official languages, and not all fluent in medicine or a common language. 

We can attempt to adopt the some of the international guidelines, but sepsis in SA is very different.
Summary:
  • Suspect sepsis always
  • SA sepsis may not be the same as international cases, and descriptions are different
  • Recognition is the missing link

MUTI in Children

Dr Tim De Maayer (Paediatric Gastroenterologist Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in SA)
“Muti” is the colloquial term for traditional medication in South Africa. There are 3.6 traditional healers for every 1000 patients in SA, while Western Medicine doctors run at 0.8 doctors per 1000 patients. It is reported that approximately 60% of people in an urban SA setting in JHB that traditional healers were consulted prior to accessing public health.

“Sangoma” is one of the terms for traditional healers within South Africa and commonly seen as a spiritual practice, which makes the system difficult to regulate. Access to these healers is available online even, making it incredibly difficult to control. 
“Online traditional healer”: http://drnasser.simplesite.com/
Frequently medications sold as “traditional medication” are not purely medicinal, an analysis of what ingredients appear in medications revealed a multitude of poisons and toxins that would not be allowed in medications for therapeutic use.
Two major toxidromes common in traditional medication:
  • Rapidly toxic in small doses
  • High mortalitiy rate (and majority of deaths are within the first 24 hours)
  • Patient frequently presents with severe liver failure 
  • First described in the 1920’s where poorer populations were eating contaminated foods (white flour/poorly prepared)
  • Toxic compound is Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids (commonly found in plants all over the SA countryside and common in traditional medicine)
  • Results in portal hypertension and massive ascites
  • May present acutely (in a younger patient when the dose rapidly exceeds dangerous levels)
  • May present chronically with bleeding varices and increased pressure in the hepatic portal vein)
Prevention going forward?
  • Public engagement 
  • Education and awareness for traditional healers and the public

Public Health Issues in EM

Mike took us through the approach to the creation of a South African Clinical Practice Guideline. In SA there are numerous public health issues in EM especially with regard to Pre-hospital care.
Call to create a clinical practice guideline was made in 2016 by AFEM, the aim was to look at >1000 recommendations for EM, with a major shift from protocol-based care to practice and patient based care.
The team Mike was involved in aimed to determine the perception of guideline dissemination and implementation in SA, looking at providers in all qualifications, two phases of the study were planned. 
The first part of the study looked at the filter through which paramedics viewed the guidelines. Paramedics were influenced by previous CPG exposure and experience (paramedics were not sure what CPG’s meant and what the point was). Expectations included being empowered , and creation of a clear career pathway. Communication and methods for the communication of the CPG’s definitely indicated a lack of trust in the leadership and stakeholders in the system.  

Final thoughts from day 1

We’ve put this blog post together using the ‘Papers’ function on Dropbox. It’s a way of co-creating content in real time and seems to work really well for blogging as it handles the embedding of different media really easy. If you want to know more follow this link.
Thanks to Simon, Kayleigh, Kyleigh, Jen, Lucy, Willem, Lara, Alan, Mande, Jo and others who have made this blog post by writing or tweeting info.
So after a very busy day 1 we are off into the bush for a Braai. Simon is not entirely sure what this is, but is hoping for lots of vegetarian options…..or maybe we should follow this delegate smiling face with open mouth 


Simon – this is what a Braai is (basically a BBQ), although tonight it’s in the bush, and there are lions. Lots of lions……

Health, wealth and emergency medicine in the 21st Century, with Simon Carley

247 249 Guest Author

Guest post by Stevan Bruijns from AfJEM

I caught up with Prof Simon Carley who will be presenting a keynote at the Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa’s annual meeting in October 2017. As well as being an accomplished public speaker, Simon is probably best known as the Senior Editor of the St.Emlyn’s blog and podcast. His day job includes being a professor of Emergency Medicine, consultant in emergency medicine at the Manchester Royal Infirmary as well as consultant in paediatric emergency medicine at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital amongst other things.

I asked Simon a few questions about his upcoming keynote.

What are the key message(s) from your talk?

I’ve been asked to talk about how the pattern of disease is changing in emergency medicine and how that’s going to affect how we practice and thus where the challenges are in developing the emergency physicians of the future. We could look at this in many ways of course. New diseases, politics and technology could change many aspects of how we practice but I’ve been asked to bring some of the lessons we’ve learned about changing pathologies in Europe and the USA to the conference as my friends and colleagues in South Africa are really seeing the impact of the sort of common presentations we see. I think there are three main messages to take away which I hope to illustrate through us all reflecting on change and some clinical cases:

  1. Population and practice are intimately linked in emergency medicine (and population is changing fast),
  2. Affluence brings new diseases and difficulties to the door of the emergency centre (and they are rising fast),
  3. The emergency physician of the future will not just need to be an algorithmic resuscitator, but rather an expert in understanding and communicating uncertainty, complexity and expectation.

Why is this an important message?

In all honesty it should not be that surprising and yet it probably is to most of us. As emergency physicians we tend to practice in the moment. We deal with the patient or problem in front of us for surprisingly short periods of time. In reality major change is all around us and the external pressures on our services are constantly influencing the highs and lows of our systems. As educators and practitioners of the future we need to think about how we adapt and adjust to make sure that we are fit for purpose for all our futures. To do that we need to understand what it will mean to be an emergency physician amidst an ever changing world. On a world level more people now die due to the effects of over-eating as opposed to malnutrition. This is an incredible achievement for humanity and yet it brings a myriad of problems for medicine. As emergency physicians we risk being swept away on a tidal wave of apparent success, tinged with the pathology of excess and affluence.

How does this message relate to African emergency care?

Africa is a real mix of patient populations that are developing at differing rates. This is a real challenge for emergency physicians. We are also seeing life expectancy rates undergoing phenomenal change as a result of anti-retroviral treatment and better living conditions/ health care (for some but clearly not for all). The populations that are doing well are increasingly living long enough and well enough to develop so called diseases of affluence. It is unclear whether the impact on this for clinical practice, societal expectation and the distribution of resources will lead to a narrowing or widening of the health care gap. As emergency physicians we are likely to be the first to know, the last to be consultants and the most likely to shoulder any adverse burden. The message for African emergency care is very much that geography and life opportunities (for whatever reason) are going to be the major determinants of health for some time to come. The inequity of opportunity and access to healthcare combined with the rising expectations of increasingly connected societies will challenge us all.

What can we do?

We need to prepare ourselves, our systems and our young aspirational trainees to a future where emergency medicine cannot be practiced by algorithm and flowchart. The emergency clinician of the future must know the evidence for their practice, but more importantly must know what to do when the decisions are more complex and uncertain than any algorithmic approach to healthcare might suggest

 

Join us for the whole conference next week or just come for the day. Details at emssa2017.co.za/

Follow Simon on twitter: @EMManchester

 

by Stevan Bruijns (ed)