Natural disasters can cause significant numbers of severe, disabling injuries, resulting in a public health emergency and requiring foreign assistance. However, since medical rehabilitation services are often poorly developed in disaster-affected regions and not highly prioritized by responding teams, physical and rehabilitation medicine (PRM) has historically been underemphasized in global dis...

Much has been written about the development of emergency medicine (EM) and its impact on the medical system as a whole. It is still described as ‘new’ and very much seen as a specialty that is evolving, rather than a static domain of knowledge and skills with rigid boundaries. In reality, the fundamentals of emergency treatment in mitigating the effects of acute illness and injury go back to an...

Last mile distribution is the final stage of a humanitarian relief chain; it refers to delivery of relief supplies from local distribution centers (LDCs) to beneficiaries affected by disasters. In this study, we consider a vehicle-based last mile distribution system, in which an LDC stores and distributes emergency relief supplies to a number of demand locations. The main decisions are allocati...

Objective: The objective of the study was to compare the effectiveness and safety of intravenous etomidate against midazolam in procedures which required sedation and analgesia in our emergency department. Methods: The study was conducted in the emergency department of Queen Elizabeth Hospital from 1st November 2005 to 30th June 2006. Adult patients who required procedural sedation and analgesi...

Assessment and management of pain in pre-hospital care settings are important aspects of paramedic and clinical team roles. As emergency department waiting times and delays in paramedic-to-nurse handover increase, it becomes more and more vital that patients receive adequate pre-hospital pain relief. However, administration of analgesia can be inadequate and can result in patients experiencing ...