Research and Reviews in the Fastlane 134

This article is a large, population-based, retrospective cohort of adults > 65 years of age. It compares those who were prescribed a macrolide with those prescribed a non-macrolide antibiotic looking at the primary outcome of a presentation for a ventricular dysrhythmia at 30 days and a secondary outcome of all-cause mortality at 30 days. They found no difference. While it’s a suboptimal study methodology, this is further evidence that we need not fear these complications. But, this shouldn’t stop us from restricting treatment to only those who need it (i.e. don’t prescribe a Z-pack for a URI). Recommended by: Anand Swaminathan Education                                                  Zwaan L, et al. Is bias in the eye of the beholder? A vignette study to assess recognition of cognitive biases in clinical case workups. BMJ Quality & Safety. 2016. PMID: 26825476  Cognitive biases are a fun and sexy topic in medicine – I talk about them all the time. However, there is really no empiric evidence that teaching these biases or learning cognitive forcing strategies improves patient outcomes. This survey, based on clinical vignettes, indicated that physicians do not agree whether biases are present, and the assessment of bias is itself heavily influenced by hindsight bias. This is another small piece of the growing evidence that clinical decision making is incredibly complex and that simply ident...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Administration Clinical Research Education Emergency Medicine Intensive Care critical care R&R in the FASTLANE recommendations research and reviews Resuscitation Source Type: blogs