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Outcome after brain injury
A 5-year retrospective review of patients who were admitted to a level 1 US trauma centre investigated the impact of social and ethnic factors on outcome. Interestingly, the likelihood of being placed in a rehabilitation centre varied significantly according to both race and insurance status. Mortality was unaffected by race, but was variably affected by income and perhaps unsurprisingly, was lowest for patients who had private insurance (J Trauma 2011;70:527–34).
Ambiguous ABBREVs
Abbreviations are in widespread use in all areas of modern life. Within the medical context, abbreviations are used to save time and space in medical records. A study of abbreviations used in the medical records of a hospital in Devon was followed by an analysis of whether clinical staff correctly understood what each abbreviation stood for (Postgrad Med J 2011;87:450–2). Most of the staff exhibited poor knowledge of the commonly used abbreviations. FFT (food for thought)?
Bring on the new wave
An article in the International Journal of Emergency Medicine (2011;4:36) examines the case for the use …