Full-text publication of abstracts in emergency medicine in Denmark.

INTRODUCTION: Abstracts presented at medical conferences or scientific meetings should ideally be published as full-text articles in peer-reviewed journals after initial presentation and feedback regardless of the findings. The aim of this survey was to determine the publication rate of papers presented at the Danish Emergency Medicine Conferences in 2009, 2010 and 2011. METHODS: Abstracts presented at the conferences were identified and authors contacted to obtain publication information. A further search was conducted using relevant databases. RESULTS: Publication rates for the 2009 and 2010 were approximately 30% (25-31.6%). The publication rate for the 2011 conference was 14.5% within 18 months with an additional 9% under review prior to publication. DISCUSSION: When comparing full-text publication rates from DEMC to previous international studies in EM Danish EM research community has similar publication rates. However, other more established specialties have higher publication levels. Knowledge of reasons for non-publication could lead to efforts to promote publication like funding; the possibility of discussion between authors and editors at conferences; "publication mentors"; and/or research courses provided by the Danish Society of Emergency Medicine.

[Identification of patients admitted acutely on suspicion of cardiac disease]. / Visitation af patienter, som indlægges akut på mistanke om hjertesygdom.

Overall, the future emergency departments in Denmark serve as a single portal of entry for all acute patients. At the same time an expansion of prehospital diagnosing and triage will take place. In patients suspected of life-threatening cardiac conditions with specialized treatment requirements where the time factor is important, the prehospital triage will be important to identify patients who should be transferred directly to a cardiac care unit to reduce prehospital and in-hospital delays of treatment.

Time telling devices used in Danish health care are not synchronized.

INTRODUCTION: Many patients begin their encounter with the health-care services in an ambulance. In some critical patients, it is pivotal that the timing of treatment and events is registered correctly. When patients are transferred from one health care provider to another, there is a risk that the time telling devices used are not synchronized. It has never been examined if this is a problem in Denmark. We performed the present study to examine if time telling devices used in the pre-hospital setting were synchronized with devices used in emergency departments. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We used an on-line atomic clock as reference time. The reference time was compared to watches found in the resuscitation rooms at emergency departments at two hospitals in Denmark. Furthermore, we compared the reference time to the watches on the defibrillators in the ambulances at two ambulance stations. RESULTS: The watches in the Emergency Department at Sydvestjysk Hospital Esbjerg had a median deviation of minus three minutes. In the Emergency Department at Hospital Lillebælt Kolding, we found a median deviation of minus 30 seconds. The watches in the defibrillators of 11 ambulances had a median deviation of minus 45 seconds. The maximum deviation between two devices was 19 minutes and 5 seconds, and the maximum deviation between a wall-mounted clock in an emergency department and a defibrillator in an ambulance was five minutes and 22 seconds. CONCLUSION: Examining the time telling devices at two Danish emergency departments and 11 ambulances demonstrated that they are not synchronized. FUNDING: not relevant. TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant. The study was not registered, as it is an observational study.

[Life just is not fair - and statistics do not make it any better]. / Kommentar til den statistiske usikkerhed - livets forfaerdeligheds princip.

INTRODUCTION: We have all tried it: it is pouring down with rain, we reach for the keys, and choose the wrong one. The mathematical probability for choosing the correct key - out of two - is 50%. During the 1990s, candy.scient. Jarle Gundersson (JG) proposed a mathematically unexplainable factor of uncertainty. He used the above example with the keys and concluded that the real, or observed, probability for choosing the correct key was 5-10%. The discrepancy between the mathematical and real probability was, according to JG, caused by The Awfulness of Being Concept. In this article, we present the results from a study and demonstrate the difference between the mathematical and the observed probability of success in two different scenarios (winning a coin toss and choosing the correct key in the first attempt). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Questionnaire survey performed at the Regional Hospital of Esbjerg 18-19 September 2009 using staff as questionnaire respondents. RESULTS: We found a discrepancy between the mathematical and observed probability in both scenarios, 64% and 68% of the cases in the two scenarios, respectively. We also found that there is a negative correlation between age and the probability that one will win a coin toss, but a positive correlation between age and choosing the correct key. The results lacked any statistical significance. CONCLUSION: We hypothesised that you will always loose in a coin toss and never choose the correct key when there are two choices. The study demonstrated that this was incorrect, but there was a difference between the mathematical and the observed probabilities in most of the cases.