Emergency Medicine

Why become involved in emergency medicine research? Rick Body shares his talk from DGINA 2014 in Nuremberg, describing his unexpected route into an academic career and the value of building a stronger evidence base for emergency care, with links to research discussed in the presentation.

What do clinicians mean when they talk about ‘gestalt’? Simon Carley introduces its origins in perception, uses visual examples to explain how patterns emerge from fragments, and considers how these ideas relate to bedside assessment, ECG interpretation, clinical judgement and information that is difficult to measure.

Can experiencing physiological stress make blood gas results more meaningful to learners? This account describes an exercise-based teaching experiment using lactate measurements, then examines the value and limits of comparing healthy volunteers with critically ill patients. It also discusses consent, organisational approval and the absence of patient-outcome evidence.

Does cooling during cardiac arrest improve outcomes, or simply lower temperature? This 2014 appraisal examines a small randomised trial of intra-arrest hypothermia, questioning patient selection, statistical power and surrogate outcomes, while separating the cooling headlines around London’s ‘cool car’ from its broader package of advanced resuscitation care.

Why does accurate emergency department coding matter beyond hospital income? This 2014 podcast introduction explains the English payment system used at the time and how incomplete records can distort accounts of the care patients receive, encouraging clinicians to record investigations, treatment and discharge information carefully.

Rick Body examines NICE’s 2014 recommendations on high-sensitivity troponin testing for early exclusion of NSTEMI. The article and podcast explain the guidance’s limited assay-specific scope, the distinction between excluding infarction and deciding on discharge, and the practical challenge of fitting repeat testing into emergency department workflows.