Teaching Physicians to Care for Critically ill Patients Through Simulation
Dr. Afshin Khazei is an expert in teaching through simulation. His leadership in the distribution and integration his innovative courses will result in the better maintenance of advanced skills for physicians working in emergency settings. The result will be improved care for patients in all 100 emergency departments across the province.
Caring for Medical Emergencies at Mass Gatherings
Dr. Adam Lund is internationally known as a leader in organizing and managing the medical events that arise at large gatherings such as music festivals, sporting events and other community events. Understanding medical needs at these planned events as well as unexpected disasters will result in better outcomes for patients.
Improving care of new atrial fibrillation
Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disturbance seen ib the Emergency Department. At times patients need to have an electric shock to convert the heart rhythm back to normal. Dr. Frank Scheuermeyer is searching for the safest and most efficient ways to urgently and safely treat these patients.
Improving emergency care for stroke patients
Dr. Devin Harris is a world leader in translating information about state of the art stroke care in the first few hours. He leads the provincial stroke initiative to improve neurologic outcomes on patients with new stroke or warning signs of strokes.
Patient Safety in Emergency Environments
Unintended harm is not uncommon in health care. Dr. Garth Hunte is working to understand how we can better prepare for and prevent patient safety events from occurring in our Emergency Departments. His work is pivotal to setting policy and procedures that will increase patient safety.
Evaluating to what extend new impaired driving laws reduce preventable deaths
Several patients with minor injuries from a car crash come into a large Emergency Department. The injured driver is identified as causing the crash and his alcohol level is not elevated. He is discharged and 2 weeks later is the cause of a fatal pedestrian crash after smoking marijuana. The strategic initiative to mitigate driver […]
Strategizing to successfully identify and treat infectious diseases
A 35 year old patient with a fever and weakness visits a small town emergency department. The patient is previously healthy and has a mildly low blood pressure but otherwise does not look critically ill. The physician treats him with fluids and acetaminophen and discharges him. He returns 6 hours later, critically ill, and dies […]
Optimizing survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
Over the past five years, the survival rates of out of hospital cardiac arrest patients has risen from 6.6% to 13% thanks to focused training and monitoring of paramedic resuscitation practices across the province. Dr. Jim Christenson is leading the BC Site of the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (funded by CIHR, NIH and Heart and Stroke […]
Preventing adverse effects of prescription medications
A 70 year old woman comes into the emergency department feeling weak, tired and dizzy–unable to cope at home alone. She is an adult onset diabetic, has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and on 6 medications. Her blood tests reveal that her kidney function is a little worse than before and her liver functions are […]
Safe and efficient early discharge of low-risk patients with chest pain
Early research has shown that 5% of patients with heart attack or unstable angina were being discharged from teaching hospitals with an inaccurate diagnosis, and no follow-up. In response, Drs. Scheuermeyer, Grafstein and Christenson – with the UBC Department of Emergency Medicine – have developed a new system to better identify whether a patient with […]