An Introductory Guide to Artificial Intelligence in Interventional Radiology: Part 2: Implementation Considerations and Harms.

The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in interventional radiology (IR) will bring about new challenges and opportunities for patients and clinicians. AI may comprise software as a medical device or AI-integrated hardware and will require a rigorous evaluation that should be guided based on the level of risk of the implementation. A hierarchy of risk of harm and possible harms are described herein. A checklist to guide deployment of an AI in a clinical IR environment is provided. As AI continues to evolve, regulation and evaluation of the AI medical devices will need to continue to evolve to keep pace and ensure patient safety.

An Exploration of the Interplay Between Well-being and Quality and Safety.

PURPOSE: Quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) and clinician well-being work are interconnected and impact each other. Well-being is of increased importance in the current state of workforce shortages and high levels of burnout. The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) Academic Symposium sought to understand the interplay between QIPS and clinician well-being and to provide practical recommendations to clinicians and institutions on ensuring that clinician well-being is integrated into QIPS efforts. METHODS: A team of emergency physicians with expertise in well-being and QIPS performed a literature review, drafted goals and recommendations, and presented at the CAEP Academic Symposium in 2023 for feedback. Goals and recommendations were then further refined. RESULTS: Three goals and recommendations were developed as follows: QIPS leaders and practitioners must (1) understand the potential intersection of well-being and QIPS, (2) consider a well-being lens for all QIPS work, and (3) incorporate QIPS methodology in efforts to improve clinician well-being. CONCLUSION: QIPS and clinician well-being are often closely linked. By incorporating these recommendations, QIPS strategies can enhance clinician well-being.

RéSUMé: OBJECTIF: Le travail d'amélioration de la qualité et de la sécurité des patients (QIPS) et le bien-être des cliniciens sont interreliés et ont des répercussions les uns sur les autres. Le bien-être est d'une importance croissante dans l'état actuel des pénuries de main-d'œuvre et des niveaux élevés d'épuisement professionnel. Le symposium universitaire de l'Association canadienne des médecins d'urgence (ACMU) visait à comprendre l'interaction entre le SPQI et le bien-être des cliniciens et à fournir des recommandations pratiques aux cliniciens et aux établissements pour assurer le bien-être des cliniciens. . .Le programme QIPS est intégré aux efforts du QIPS. MéTHODES: Une équipe de médecins urgentistes ayant une expertise en bien-être et QIPS a effectué une revue de la littérature, rédigé des objectifs et des recommandations, et présenté au symposium académique de l'ACMU en 2023 pour obtenir une rétroaction. Les objectifs et les recommandations ont ensuite été affinés. RéSULTATS: Trois objectifs et recommandations ont été élaborés : les dirigeants et les praticiens du SPQI doivent (1) comprendre l'intersection potentielle du bien-être et du SPQI, (2) envisager une optique du bien-être pour tous les travaux du SPQI, et (3) intégrer la méthodologie QIPS dans les efforts visant à améliorer le bien-être des cliniciens. CONCLUSIONS: Le SPQI et le bien-être des cliniciens sont souvent étroitement liés. En intégrant ces recommandations, les stratégies QIPS peuvent améliorer le bien-être des cliniciens.

Transitions of care for older adults discharged home from the emergency department: an inductive thematic content analysis of patient comments.

OBJECTIVE: Improving care transitions for older adults can reduce emergency department (ED) visits, adverse events, and empower community autonomy. We conducted an inductive qualitative content analysis to identify themes emerging from comments to better understand ED care transitions. METHODS: The LEARNING WISDOM prospective longitudinal observational cohort includes older adults (≥ 65 years) who experienced a care transition after an ED visit from both before and during COVID-19. Their comments on this transition were collected via phone interview and transcribed. We conducted an inductive qualitative content analysis with randomly selected comments until saturation. Themes that arose from comments were coded and organized into frequencies and proportions. We followed the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR). RESULTS: Comments from 690 patients (339 pre-COVID, 351 during COVID) composed of 351 women (50.9%) and 339 men (49.1%) were analyzed. Patients were satisfied with acute emergency care, and the proportion of patients with positive acute care experiences increased with the COVID-19 pandemic. Negative patient comments were most often related to communication between health providers across the care continuum and the professionalism of personnel in the ED. Comments concerning home care became more neutral with the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSION: Patients were satisfied overall with acute care but reported gaps in professionalism and follow-up communication between providers. Comments may have changed in tone from positive to neutral regarding home care over the COVID-19 pandemic due to service slowdowns. Addressing these concerns may improve the quality of care transitions and provide future pandemic mitigation strategies.

Hospital admission from the emergency department for selected emergent diagnoses during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario: a retrospective population-based study.

BACKGROUND: Avoidance of care during the pandemic may have contributed to delays in care, and as a result, worse patient outcomes. We evaluated markers of illness acuity on presentation to the emergency department among patients with non-COVID-19-related emergent diagnoses and associated outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study using linked administrative data from Ontario. We selected 4 emergent diagnoses, namely appendicitis, ectopic pregnancy, renal failure and diabetic ketoacidosis. We used the nonemergent diagnosis of cellulitis as a control. Our primary outcome of interest was hospital admission. Secondary outcomes were ambulance arrival, surgical intervention, subsequent hospital admission within 30 days of discharge from the emergency department or hospital and 30-day mortality. We compared outcomes during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (Mar. 15-Dec. 31, 2020) with a control period (Mar. 15-Dec. 31, 2018, and Mar. 15-Dec. 31, 2019). RESULTS: Emergency department visits for all conditions initially decreased during the pandemic. During this period, patients across all study diagnoses were more likely to arrive to the emergency department via ambulance. Patients with an ectopic pregnancy had higher odds of surgery in the pandemic period (odds ratio [OR] 1.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04-1.55) but this was not observed among patients with appendicitis. Patients with renal failure had increased odds of hospital admission (OR 1.14, 95% CI 1.04-1.24) and 30-day mortality (OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.04-1.31) during the pandemic period. INTERPRETATION: The pandemic period was associated with increased arrival to the emergency department via ambulance across all study diagnoses. Although patients with renal failure had increased hospital admission and death, and patients with ectopic pregnancy had an increased risk of surgery, there were no differences in outcomes for other populations, suggesting the health care system was able to care for these patients effectively.

Missing occlusions: Quality gaps for ED patients with occlusion MI.

BACKGROUND: ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) guidelines encourage monitoring of false positives (Code STEMI without culprit) but ignore false negatives (non-STEMI with occlusion myocardial infarction [OMI]). We evaluated the hospital course of emergency department (ED) patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) using STEMI vs OMI paradigms. METHODS: This retrospective chart review examined all ACS patients admitted through two academic EDs, from June 2021 to May 2022, categorized as 1) OMI (acute culprit lesion with TIMI 0-2 flow, or acute culprit lesion with TIMI 3 flow and peak troponin I >10,000 ng/L; or, if no angiogram, peak troponin >10,000 ng/L with new regional wall motion abnormality), 2) NOMI (Non-OMI, i.e. MI without OMI) or 3) MIRO (MI ruled out: no troponin elevation). Patients were stratified by admission for STEMI. Initial ECGs were reviewed for automated interpretation of "STEMI", and admission/discharge diagnoses were compared. RESULTS: Among 382 patients, there were 141 OMIs, 181 NOMIs, and 60 MIROs. Only 40.4% of OMIs were admitted as STEMI: 60.0% had "STEMI" on ECG, and median door-to-cath time was 103 min (IQR 71-149). But 59.6% of OMIs were not admitted as STEMI: 1.3% had "STEMI" on ECG (p < 0.001) and median door-to-cath time was 1712 min (IQR 1043-3960; p < 0.001). While 13.9% of STEMIs were false positive and had a different discharge diagnosis, 32.0% of Non-STEMIs had OMI but were still discharged as "Non-STEMI." CONCLUSIONS: STEMI criteria miss a majority of OMI, and discharge diagnoses highlight false positive STEMI but never false negative STEMI. The OMI paradigm reveals quality gaps and opportunities for improvement.

Learning From a Regional Approach: Integration to Scale, Spread, and Sustain Virtual Urgent Care.

While new offerings of virtual urgent care services from peer hospitals faltered after initial provincial pilot funding lapsed, our 3 regional academic health sciences centers decided to partner to enhance patient access, achieve efficiencies, and support long-term sustainability. Utilizing the Development Model for Integrated Care framework, we progressed through the 4 phases to ensure joint success and high-quality care: (1) initiative and design phase-individual parallel projects but with strong collaborations and broad stakeholder engagement; (2) experimental and execution phase-continuous quality improvement approach for governance, policies, and processes; (3) expansion and monitoring phase-weekly leadership touchpoints on key performance indicators; and (4) consolidation and transformation phase-sustainability through ongoing funding.

Improving safety and communication for healthcare providers caring for SARS-COV-2 patients.

BACKGROUND: Decreasing healthcare provider (HCP) exposure to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) virus in emergency departments (EDs) is crucial. Approaches include limiting the HCP presence and ensuring sealed isolation rooms, which can result in communication difficulties. This quality improvement (QI) initiative aimed to decrease by 50% duration of isolation room door opening and increasing HCP-perceived communication clarity by one point on a five-point Likert scale. METHODS: This was a prospective, multi-stage project with three Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles between May and July 2020: (1) an educational intervention, (2) the introduction of a novel transceiver communication device, and (3) utilizing a clinical champion. Statistical Process Control XbarR charts were used to assess for special cause variation, and two-tailed Mann-Whitney U tests were used for statistical significance between Likert survey means. Qualitative responses underwent thematic analysis. RESULTS: Observation of 174 patient encounters was completed over 33 days, with 95 meeting the inclusion criteria. Door opening decreased from baseline (n=40; mean 72.97%) to PDSA 3 (n=21; mean 1.58%; p<0.0001). HCP-perceived communication clarity improved from baseline (n=36; mean 3.36) to PDSA-3 (n=49; mean 4.21; p<0.001). Survey themes included positive effects on communication and workflow, with some challenges on the integration of the new device into the clinical workflow. HCP-perceived errors, workarounds, and workflow pauses showed significant improvements. CONCLUSION: This QI initiative with a novel transceiver showed significant decreases in isolation room door opening and increases in communication clarity. Future work will expand to operating rooms and intensive care units.

A blueprint for building an emergency department quality improvement and patient safety committee.

The field of quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) has matured significantly in emergency medicine over the past decade. From standalone, strategically misaligned, and incoherently designed QIPS projects years ago, emergency department (ED) leaders have now recognized that developing a more robust QIPS infrastructure helps prioritize and organize projects for a greater likelihood of success and impact for patients and the system. This process includes the development of a well-defined, accountable, and supported departmental QIPS committee. This can be achieved effectively using a deliberate and structured approach, such as the one described by Harvard Business School Professor John Kotter in his seminal work, "Leading Change." Herein, we present a blueprint using this framework and include practical examples from our experience developing a robust and successful ED QIPS committee and infrastructure. The steps include how to develop a "burning platform," select a guiding coalition of leaders, develop a strategic vision and initiatives, recruit a volunteer army of members, enable actions for the committee, generate short-term successes, sustain the pace of change, and, finally, enable the infrastructure to support ongoing improvements. This road map can be replicated by ED teams of variable sizes and settings to structure, prioritize, and operationalize their QIPS activities and ultimately improve the outcomes of their patients.

RéSUMé: Le domaine de l'amélioration de la qualité de la pratique clinique et de la sécurité des patients (AQSP) s'est considérablement développé en médecine d'urgence au cours de la dernière décennie. Alors qu'il y a quelques années, les projets d'AQSP étaient autonomes, mal alignés sur le plan stratégique et conçus de manière incohérente, les responsables des services d'urgence (SU) reconnaissent aujourd'hui que la mise en place d'une infrastructure d'AQSP plus solide permet de hiérarchiser et d'organiser les projets pour qu'ils aient plus de chances de réussir et d'avoir un impact sur les patients et le système. Ce processus comprend le développement d'un comité d'AQSP départemental bien défini, responsable et soutenu. On peut y parvenir efficacement en utilisant une approche délibérée et structurée, comme celle décrite par le professeur John Kotter de la Harvard Business School dans son ouvrage phare intitulé « Leading Change ¼. Dans le présent document, nous présentons un plan à l'aide de ce cadre et incluons des exemples pratiques tirés de notre expérience de l'élaboration d'un comité et d'une infrastructure d'AQSP de SU solides et réussis. Les étapes comprennent la façon d'élaborer une « plateforme brûlante ¼, de sélectionner une coalition de dirigeants, d'élaborer une vision et des initiatives stratégiques, de recruter une armée de membres bénévoles, de permettre des actions pour le comité, de générer des succès à court terme, de maintenir le rythme du changement et enfin, permettre à l'infrastructure de soutenir les améliorations en cours. Cette feuille de route peut être reproduite par des équipes d'urgence de tailles et de contextes différents pour structurer, hiérarchiser et rendre opérationnelles leurs activités d'AQSP et, en fin de compte, améliorer les résultats de leurs patients.

Experiences of healthcare providers with a novel emergency response intubation team during COVID-19.

OBJECTIVES: In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were significant concerns about the infectious risks of intubation to healthcare providers. In response, a dedicated emergency response intubation team (ERIT) consisting of anesthesiologists and allied health providers was instituted for our emergency department (ED). Given the high-risk nature of intubations and the new interprofessional team dynamics, we sought to assess health-care provider experiences and potential areas of improvement. METHODS: Surveys were distributed to healthcare providers at the University Health Network, a quaternary healthcare centre in Toronto, Canada, which includes two urban EDs seeing over 128,000 patients per year. Participants included ED physicians and nurses, anesthesiologists, anesthesia assistants, and operating room nurses. The survey included free-text questions. Responses underwent thematic analysis using grounded theory and were independently coded by two authors to generate descriptive themes. Discrepancies were resolved with a third author. Descriptive themes were distilled through an inductive, iterative process until fewer main themes emerged. RESULTS: A total of 178 surveys were collected (68.2% response rate). Of these, 123 (69%) participated in one or more ERIT activations. Positive aspects included increased numbers of staff to assist, increased intubation expertise, improved safety, and good team dynamics within the ERIT team. Challenges included a loss of scope (primarily ED physicians and nurses) and unfamiliar workflows, perceived delays to ERIT team arrival or patient intubation, role confusion, handover concerns, and communication challenges between ED and ERIT teams. Perceived opportunities for improvement included interprofessional training, developing clear guidelines on activation, inter-team role clarification, and guidelines on handover processes post-intubation. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare providers perceived that a novel interprofessional collaboration for intubations of COVID-19 patients presented both benefits and challenges. Opportunities for improvement centred around interprofessional training, shared decision making between teams, and structured handoff processes.

RéSUMé: OBJECTIFS: Aux premiers stades de la pandémie de COVID-19, les risques infectieux de l'intubation pour les prestataires de soins de santé ont suscité de vives inquiétudes. En réponse, une équipe d'intervention d'urgence en intubation (emergency response intubation team ERIT), composée d'anesthésistes et de prestataires de services paramédicaux, a été mise en place dans notre service d'urgence. Compte tenu de la nature à haut risque des intubations et de la nouvelle dynamique d'équipe interprofessionnelle, nous avons cherché à évaluer les expériences des prestataires de soins et les domaines d'amélioration potentiels. MéTHODES: Les questionnaires ont été distribués aux prestataires de soins de santé du University Health Network, un centre de soins de santé quaternaire de Toronto, au Canada, qui comprend deux urgences urbaines accueillant plus de 128 000 patients par an. Les participants comprenaient des médecins et des infirmiers des urgences, des anesthésistes, des assistants en anesthésie et des infirmiers de salle d'opération. Les réponses ont fait l'objet d'une analyse thématique fondée sur la théorie de la base et ont été codées indépendamment par deux auteurs afin de générer des thèmes descriptifs. Les divergences ont été résolues avec un troisième auteur. Les thèmes descriptifs ont été distillés par un processus inductif et itératif jusqu'à ce qu'un nombre réduit de thèmes principaux émerge. RéSULTATS: Au total, 178 sondages ont été recueillis (taux de réponse de 68,2 %). Parmi ceux-ci, 123 (69 %) ont participé à une ou plusieurs activations d'ERIT. Les aspects positifs comprenaient un nombre accru de personnel pour aider, une expertise accrue en matière d'intubation, une sécurité améliorée et une bonne dynamique d'équipe au sein de l'équipe ERIT. Parmi les difficultés rencontrées, citons la perte du champ d'action (principalement les médecins et les infirmières des services d'urgence) et les flux de travail non familiers, les retards perçus dans l'arrivée de l'équipe d'ERIT ou l'intubation du patient, la confusion des rôles, les problèmes de transfert et les difficultés de communication entre les équipes des services d'urgence et d'ERIT. Les possibilités d'amélioration perçues comprennent la formation interprofessionnelle, l'élaboration de directives claires sur l'activation, la clarification des rôles entre les équipes et les directives sur les processus de transfert après l'intubation. CONCLUSIONS: Les prestataires de soins de santé ont perçu qu'une nouvelle collaboration interprofessionnelle pour les intubations des patients COVID-19 présentait à la fois des avantages et des défis.

Recurrent acute pancreatitis during a ketogenic diet-a case report and literature review.

BACKGROUND: The ketogenic ("keto") diet has been gaining more attention lately in the medical literature and the lay media as a potentially effective method for weight control and management of type 2 diabetes. Though rare, there have been case reports of serious side effects. Here, we present a peculiar case of pancreatitis presumably associated with the ketogenic diet. CASE PRESENTATION: A 35-year-old man on a calorie-restricted ketogenic diet presented to the emergency department with weekly abdominal pain on Monday mornings, each time after dietary indiscretions ("cheat days") on the weekend. It was found that he had a clinical presentation consistent with acute pancreatitis with no associated alcohol use, hypertriglyceridemia, pancreatic obstruction, or other anatomic abnormalities. The patient's symptoms resolved with conservative management and progressive reintroduction of a standard diet. CONCLUSION: This case indicates that the ketogenic diet could lower the threshold for acute pancreatitis, and that an episodic stressor may trigger an acute attack in the absence of traditional risk factors.

Flattening the other curve: Reducing emergency department STEMI delays during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) reperfusion delays despite reduced emergency department (ED) volumes. However, little is known about ED contributions to these delays. We sought to measure STEMI delays and ED quality benchmarks over the course of the first two waves of the pandemic. STUDY: This study was a multi-centre, retrospective chart review from two urban, academic medical centres. We obtained ED volumes, COVID-19 tests and COVID-19 cases from the hospital databases and ED Code STEMIs with culprit lesions from the cath lab. We measured door-to-ECG (DTE) time and ECG-to-Activation (ETA) time during the phases of the pandemic in our jurisdiction: pre-first wave (Jan-Mar 2020), first wave (Apr-June 2020), post-first wave (July-Nov 2020), and second wave (Dec 2020 to Feb 2021). We calculated median DTE and ETA times and compared them to the 2019 baseline using Wilcox rank-sum test. We calculated the percentages of DTE ≤10 min and of ETA ≤10 min and compared them to baseline using chi-square test. We also utilized Statistical Process Control (SPC) Xbar-R charts to assess for special cause variation. RESULTS: COVID-19 cases began during the pre-wave phase, but there was no change in ED volumes or STEMI quality metrics. During the first wave ED volumes fell by 40%, DTE tripled (10.0 to 29.5 min, p = 0.016), ETA doubled (8.5 to 17.0 min, p = 0.04), and percentages for both DTE ≤10 min and ETA ≤10 min fell by three-quarters (each from more than 50%, to both 12.5%, both p < 0.05). After the first wave all STEMI quality benchmarks returned to baseline and did not significantly change during the second wave. A brief period of special cause variation was noted for DTE during the first wave. CONCLUSIONS: Both DTE and ETA metrics worsened during the first wave of the pandemic, revealing how it negatively impacted the triage and diagnosis of STEMI patients. But these normalized after the first wave and were unaffected by the second wave, indicating that nurses and physicians adapted to the pandemic to maintain STEMI quality of care. DTE and ETA metrics can help EDs identify delays to reperfusion during the pandemic and beyond.