Global Emergency Medicine: A Review of the Literature From 2011

Objectives: The Global Emergency Medicine Literature Review (GEMLR) conducts an annual search of published and unpublished articles relevant to global emergency medicine (EM) to identify, review, and disseminate the most important research in this field to a wide audience of academics and practitioners. Methods: This year, 7,924 articles written in seven languages were identified by our search. These articles were divided up among 20 reviewers for initial screening based on their relevance to the field of global EM. An additional two reviewers searched the grey literature. A total of 206 articles were deemed appropriate by at least one reviewer and approved by their editor for formal scoring of their overall quality and importance. Results: Of the 206 articles that met our predetermined inclusion criteria, 24 articles received scores of 17 or higher and were selected for formal summary and critique. Interrater reliability for our scoring system was good with an interclass correlation coefficient of 0.628 (95% confidence interval = 0.51 to 0.72). Conclusions: Compared to previous reviews, there was a significant increase in the number of articles that were devoted to emergency care in resource-limited settings, with fewer articles related to disaster and humanitarian response. The majority of articles that met our selection criteria were reviews that examined the efficacy of particular treatment regimens for diseases that are primarily seen in lowand middle-income countries. ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2012; 19:000–000 a 2012 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine a 2012 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine ISSN 1069-6563 doi: 10.1111/j.1553-2712.2012.01447.x PII ISSN 1069-6563583 1 From the Department of Emergency Medicine, George Washington University (EDS), Washington, DC; the Department of Emergency Medicine, Providence Regional Medical Center (EDS), Everett, WA; the Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University (GJ), Baltimore, MD; the Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Michigan (TKB), Ann Arbor, MI; the Department of Emergency Medicine, New York University (MF), New York, NY; the Department of Emergency Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital (EG, KB, ACL), Providence, RI; the Department of Emergency Medicine, Cambridge Hospital (MA), Cambridge, MA; and the Department of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (MF, MA, ACL), Cambridge, MA. Global Emergency Medicine Literature Review (GEMLR) Group members are listed in Appendix A. Received April 30, 2012; revision received June 1, 2012; accepted June 17, 2012. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest with regard to the publication of this work. No external funding was provided for this literature review. Supervising Editor: Mark Hauswald, MD. Address for correspondence and reprints: Erika D. Schroeder, MD, MPH; e-mail: [email protected]. Medicina de Urgencias Y Emergencias Global: Una Revisión de la Literatura de 2011