1,721,074 research outputs found
Response to “Protecting the role of the intensive care research coordinator during pandemics”
No full textWorldwide, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and the resulting coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has seen more than 107,000,000 cases and 2,300,000 deaths worldwide.1 In some countries, this has caused enormous strain on the healthcare system and on intensive care units (ICUs), in particular, with a reported mean rate of ICU admission of 20.1% (range = 4.6–32%) for patients admitted to the hospital with coronavirus disease 2019. The reported deaths in the ICU were highly variable and ranged from 0 to 72% (mean = 34.9%); in the hospital, the mean mortality was 45% (range = 5–72%).2 Such increases in ICU admission stretch resources in a sustained manner during pandemics, which is complicated by simultaneous reductions in available staffing as clinicians also become unwell.3No Full Tex
A critical care pandemic staffing framework in Australia – Authors' response
No full textWe thank Ramnarain and Pouwels1 for their comments on our recently published critical care pandemic staffing framework in Australia.2 It is with interest that they report using strategies similar to those we have recommended in our framework. This allowed them to upscale their intensive care unit capacity to more than 250%. We agree with the important points made that modelling staffing requirements is extraordinarily challenging, particularly in the context of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection and coronavirus disease 2019, an area in which we are continually learning. The ability to undertake such modelling is important for planning not only for surge episodes but also for sustained surge, as has been observed in some countries. No doubt with the rapid generation of large amounts of data specific to coronavirus disease 2019, we will begin to better understand the disease including its trajectory, impact on patient outcomes, and service level requirements. Such a disruption can also open opportunities for identifying, implementing, and evaluating novel models of care that may have future utility.No Full Tex
Statistics: The grammar of science (Editorial)
No full textFor clinicians, the desire to base practice and treatment decisions on the best available evidence is strong, and they are fuelled by the desire to deliver optimal patient care and achieve the best possible outcomes. In the decades since the birth of evidence-based practice, advances in research methods have developed to ensure the highest quality evidence is produced. However, the evidence warrants scrutiny because inadequacies in research methods, including statistical analysis, can jeopardise research quality. Here, we broach two aspects of statistical reporting that are of current interest and importance to our journal. The first is practical and local: How best to report and interpret statistical methods in manuscripts submitted to Australian Critical Care(ACC)? The second is almost philosophical and definitely global: the current controversy and recommendations around the interpretation of P-values and use of the term ‘statistically significant’.No Full Tex
Physical outcomes after critical illness: Muscle mass and strength are important for achieving outcomes that may matter most to patients (Editorial)
No full textIn the past 12 months, Australian Critical Care has seen a notable increase in the number of manuscripts submitted to the journal wherein the focus has been on the long-term recovery for survivors with critical illness. The compromise that occurs as a result of critical illness is multifactorial and can have a physical, psychological, social, and economic impact on the patient and their family.1,2 Although patient-oriented outcomes, such as these, that extend beyond survival have been a research and clinical focus for some time,3 there is still much we do not know about accurate assessment and optimal management.4 In this issue, two articles focus specifically on the physical impact of critical illness by exploring the assessment of muscle mass5 and strength.6No Full Tex
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Outcomes of same day discharge after percutaneous coronary intervention: A quality improvement project
No full textBackground
Literature about how same day discharge following percutaneous coronary intervention influences patient and organisational outcomes, especially length of stay and outpatient cardiac rehabilitation attendance, is limited.
Aim
The study aimed to evaluate patient and organisational outcomes after implementing same day discharge in one Australian tertiary hospital.
Methods
An uncontrolled before and after study design was adopted. Data on patient and organisational outcomes from patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention 6 months in the pre-implementation (n = 66) and 6 months in the post-implementation periods (n = 82) were compared. In the post-implementation period, subgroups of same day discharge patients (n = 19) and overnight stay patients (n = 63) were compared for the same outcome data.
Results
When comparing overnight stay, same day discharge contributed to reduced length of stay (21 hours) and cost-savings ($2,546) per patient, which were statistically significant. However, the low implementation rate (23.2%) meant that the length of stay and healthcare costs were similar in the pre- and post-implementation groups. Although non-statistically significant, same day discharge patients had a higher rate of outpatient cardiac rehabilitation attendance than overnight stay patients. Post-procedure complications or readmissions were similar between the groups.
Discussion and conclusion
While same day discharge resulted in reduced length of stay and healthcare costs, more patients must be discharged the same day before a meaningful impact on healthcare delivery will be realised. Encouragingly, a higher proportion of same day discharge patients attended outpatient cardiac rehabilitation than overnight stay patients. More research is warranted to investigate further how same day discharge impacts on outpatient cardiac rehabilitation attendance.No Full Tex
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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