Research

Two 2016 studies examine difficult questions in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: whether amiodarone or lidocaine improves outcomes, and how resuscitation duration relates to neurological recovery. Natalie May considers study design, statistical uncertainty and why translating findings into bedside decisions needs care.

How should clinicians balance missed acute coronary syndrome against the harms of unnecessary investigation? In notes accompanying his UMECS 2016 talk, Rick Body explores the limits of symptoms and clinical judgement, acceptable risk and the importance of including patients in chest-pain decisions.

This December 2015 update introduces the James Lind Alliance’s emergency medicine priority-setting partnership with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. The post and accompanying podcast explain an effort to bring patients, carers and clinicians together to identify important unanswered research questions.

Natalie May and Iain Beardsell review the opening day of the 2015 London Trauma Conference in this report and podcast. Highlights include older trauma patients, human factors, brain and spinal injury, mass-casualty care and why effective systems matter more than any single intervention.

This October 2015 announcement introduces the James Lind Alliance and RCEM emergency medicine research priority-setting partnership. It explains why patients, carers and clinicians were invited to identify unanswered questions together, and how that process aimed to shape research priorities beyond individual researchers’ interests.

Does apnoeic oxygenation reduce desaturation during intubation of critically ill adults? This 2015 appraisal of the FELLOW trial examines its ICU population, oxygen-saturation outcomes and methodological limitations, asking how far the findings can be applied to emergency department airway practice.