Background

Providing optimal care for trauma, the leading cause of death for young adults, remains a challenge e.g., due to field triage limitations in assessing a patient’s condition and deciding on transport destination. Data-driven On Scene Injury Severity Prediction (OSISP) models for motor vehicle crashes have shown potential for providing real-time decision support. The objective of this study is therefore to evaluate if an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based clinical decision support system can identify severely injured trauma patients in the prehospital setting.

Methods

The Swedish Trauma Registry was used to train and validate five models – Logistic Regression, Random Forest, XGBoost, Support Vector Machine and Artificial Neural Network – in a stratified 10-fold cross validation setting and hold-out analysis. The models performed binary classification of the New Injury Severity Score and were evaluated using accuracy metrics, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and Precision-Recall curve (AUCPR), and under- and overtriage rates.

Results

There were 75,602 registrations between 2013–2020 and 47,357 (62.6%) remained after eligibility criteria were applied. Models were based on 21 predictors, including injury location. From the clinical outcome, about 40% of patients were undertriaged and 46% were overtriaged. Models demonstrated potential for improved triaging and yielded AUC between 0.80–0.89 and AUCPR between 0.43–0.62.

Conclusions

AI based OSISP models have potential to provide support during assessment of injury severity. The findings may be used for developing tools to complement field triage protocols, with potential to improve prehospital trauma care and thereby reduce morbidity and mortality for a large patient population.

Objectives. This study aimed to investigate whether Swedish ambulance personnel differ in the extent of suffering from health problems compared to other occupational groups. Methods. Two cohorts of ambulance personnel from 2001 and 2008, with 1778 and 2753 individuals, respectively, were followed regarding assignment of diagnostic coding (International Classification of Diseases codes) until 2016. These two cohorts represent all who were employed as ambulance personnel by public employers during these years. Two comparison groups were added: other healthcare workers and other professions. All data were retrieved from national registers. The chi (2) test was were used for statistical calculation. Results. Swedish ambulance personnel are at a significantly higher risk of being affected by 'Paroxysmal tachycardia, atrial fibrillation and flutter, other cardiac arrhythmias', by 'Other intervertebral disc disorders' and by 'Arthropathies', when compared to both comparison groups in both cohorts. Almost similar results were seen for 'Gonarthrosis' and for 'Dorsopathies'. Conclusions. Swedish ambulance personnel run the risk of being affected by certain diseases and injuries to a greater extent compared to other professions.

BACKGROUND: The Swedish naval specialized boarding element participated in Operation Atalanta in 2013 to mitigate piracy by escorting and protecting ships included in the United Nations World Food Program in the Indian Ocean. We describe the experiences of the Swedish naval specialized boarding-element members during 4 months of international naval hostile duty. Some studies have reported experiences of naval duty for the Coast Guard or the merchant fleet; however, we did not find any studies that identified or described experiences of long-time duty onboard ship for the naval armed forces.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The respondents wrote individual notes of daily events while onboard. Conventional content analysis was used on the collected data, using an inductive approach.

RESULTS: The findings revealed three broad themes: military preparedness, coping with the naval context, and handling physical and mental strain. Different categories emerged indicating that the participants need the ability to adapt to the naval environment and to real situations.

CONCLUSION: The Swedish navalforces should train their specialized element members in coping strategies. 

The aim of this study was to identify physicians' and nurses' perceptions of military pre-hospital emergency care before and after an international mission. A qualitative empirical study with a phenomenographic approach was used. The results after pre-deployment training can be categorised as (1) learning about military medicine and (2) taking care of the casualty. The results after an international mission can be categorised as (1) collaborating with others, (2) providing general health care and (3) improving competence in military medicine. These results indicate that the training should be developed in order to optimise pre-deployment training for physicians and nurses. This may result in increased safety for the provider of care, while at the same time minimising suffering and enhancing the possibility of survival of the injured.

Catastrophic haemorrhage from extremity injuries has for a long time been the single most common cause of preventable death in the military environment. The effective use of extremity tourniquets has increased the survival of combat casualties, and exsanguination from isolated limb injuries is no longer the most common cause of death. Today, the most common cause of potentially preventable death is haemorrhage from the junctional zones, i.e. the most proximal part of the extremities, not amenable to standard tourniquets.

Different training techniques to control catastrophic haemorrhage have been used by the Swedish Armed Forces in the pre-deployment training of physicians, nurses and medics for many years. The training techniques include different types of human patient simulators such as moulage patients and manikins. Preferred training conditions for the control of catastrophic haemorrhage include a high degree of realism, in combination with multiple training attempts.

This report presents a new hybrid training model for catastrophic external junctional haemorrhage control. It offers a readily reproducible, simple and inexpensive opportunity to train personnel to deal with life threatening catastrophic junctional haemorrhage. In particular, this model offers an opportunity for non-medical military personnel in Sweden to practice control of realistic catastrophic haemorrhage, with multiple training attempts.

Introduction:  Sepsis  is life threatening  and  requires  urgent healthcare  to reduce  suffering  and death. Therefore it is important that septic patients are identified early to enable treatment.

Aim: To investigate to what extent EMS personnel identified patients with sepsis using the "BAS

90-30-90"  model, and to describe assessments and medical procedures that were  undertaken by the personnel.

Methods: This was a retrospective study where  185 EMS medical records were  reviewed. The inclusion was based on patients who were later diagnosed with sepsis in the hospital.

Results: A physician assessed the patients  in 74 of the EMS cases, which lead to exclusion  of these  records  in  regard  to  the  EMS  personnel's  ability  to  identify  sepsis.  The  personnel documented  suspicion  of severe sepsis in eight (n=8) of the remaining 111 records (7.2%). The proportion  of patients  065 years  of age was 73% (n=135)  of which  37% (n=50) were over 80 years  old. Thirty-nine percent  (39%,  n=72)  were  females. The  personnel  documented blood pressure   in  91%  (n=168),  respiratory   rate  in  76%  (n=140),   saturation   in  100%  (n=185), temperature  in 76%  (n=141),  and  heart  rate  in  94%  (n=174)  of  the  records.  Systolic  blood pressure  <90 mmHg  was  documented  in 14,2%  (n=24),  respiratory  rate  030 in 36%  (n=50), saturation <90 in 49%   (n=91). temperature >38°C in 37.6% (n=53), and heart rate 090 in 70% (n=121) of the records. Documented medical procedures and treatments were intravenous  lines (70%, n=130), intravenous  fluids (10%, n=19) and administration  of oxygen (72%, n=133).

Conclusion:  The EMS personnel identified  only a few septic patients  with the help of the BAS

90-30-90  model when  all three criteria  would  be met for severe  sepsis. Either  advanced age (>65  years),   fever   (>38°C)   or  tachypnea (020  breaths/min)   appeared   to   increase  the personnel's suspicion  of sepsis. Oxygen, but not intravenous  fluids, was given in an adequate way.

Purpose:  There is a lack of knowledge  about the early phase of severe infection. This reportdescribes the early chain of care in bacteraemia as follows:  (a) compare patients who were and were not transported by the Emergency Medical Services (EMS); (b) describe various aspects of the EMS chain; and (c) describe factors of importance for the delay to the start ofintravenous antibiotics. It was hypothesized that, for patients with suspected sepsis judged by the EMS clinician, the delay until the onset of antibiotic treatment would be shorter.

Basic Procedures: All  patients  in the Municipality of Gothenburg  (Sweden) with apositive blood culture, when assessed at the Laboratory of Bacteriology in the Municipality of Gothenburg, from February 1 through April 30, 2012 took part in the survey.

Main Findings/Results:  In all, 696 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Their mean agewas 76 years and 52% were men. Of all patients, 308 (44%) had been in contact with the EMS and/or the emergency department (ED). Of these 308 patients, 232 (75%) were transported by the EMS and 188 (61%) had “true pathogens” in blood cultures. Patients who were transported by the EMS were older, included more men, and suffered from more severe symptoms  and signs.The EMS nurse  suspected sepsis in only six percent of the cases. These patients had a delay from arrival at hospital until the start of antibiotics of one hour and 19 minutes  versus three hours and 21 minutes among the remaining patients (P = .0006). The corresponding figures for cases with “true pathogens” were one hour and19 minutes  versus three hours and 15 minutes  (P = .009).

Conclusion:  Among patients with bacteraemia, 75% used the EMS, and these patients were older, included more men, and suffered from more severe symptoms  and signs. The EMS nurse  suspected sepsis in six percent of cases. Regardless  of whether or not patients with true pathogens  were isolated,  a suspicion of sepsis by the EMS clinician at thescene was associated with a shorter delay to the start of antibiotic treatment.

The aim of this study was to identify tactical officers' views of prehospital emergency care in the field before an international mission. A qualitative study with a phenomenographic approach based on interviews was used. The result of this study is a set of descriptive categories on a collective level, showing the variation in how the tactical officers perceived the phenomenon of emergency care in the battlefield. The result can be viewed as (1) noncombat-oriented including being able to do one's specialist task, being able to talk with local people, and being able to give first aid, and (2) combat-oriented including soldiers' skills and roles in the unit, being able to act in the unit, and being able to lead the care of injured. These findings are important for officers' preparation for international missions. The interaction between military and medical knowledge on-site care should be developed between the tactical officer and the medical personnel in order to minimize suffering and to enhance the possibility for survival of the casualty.

The aim of this study was to identify tactical officers' views of prehospital emergency care in the field before an international mission. A qualitative study with a phenomenographic approach based on interviews was used. The result of this study is a set of descriptive categories on a collective level, showing the variation in how the tactical officers perceived the phenomenon of emergency care in the battlefield. The result can be viewed as (1) noncombat-oriented including being able to do one's specialist task, being able to talk with local people, and being able to give first aid, and (2) combat-oriented including soldiers' skills and roles in the unit, being able to act in the unit, and being able to lead the care of injured. These findings are important for officers' preparation for international missions. The interaction between military and medical knowledge on-site care should be developed between the tactical officer and the medical personnel in order to minimize suffering and to enhance the possibility for survival of the casualty.