Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has greatly affected medical education in addition to clinical systems. Residency training has probably been the most affected aspect of medical education during the pandemic, and research on this topic is crucial for educators and clinical teachers. The aim of this study was to understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic comprehensively through a systematic review and analysis of related published articles.Methods: A systematic review was conducted based on a predesigned protocol. We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE databases until November 30, 2020, for eligible articles. Two independent reviewers extracted data by using a customized form to record crucial information, and any conflicts between the two reviewers were resolved through discussion with another independent reviewer. The aggregated data were summarized and analyzed.Results: In total, 53 original articles that investigated the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on residency training were included. Studies from various regions were included in the research, with the largest percentage from the United States (n = 25, 47.2%). Most of these original articles were questionnaire-based studies (n = 44, 83%), and the research target groups included residents (79.55%), program directors (13.64%), or both (6.82%). The majority of the articles (n = 37, 84.0%) were published in countries severely affected by the pandemic. Surgery (n = 36, 67.92%) was the most commonly studied field.Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected residency training globally, particularly surgical and interventional medical fields. Decreased clinical experience, reduced case volume, and disrupted education activities are major concerns. Further studies should be conducted with a focus on the learning outcomes of residency training during the pandemic and the effectiveness of assisted teaching methods.

Sepsis was recently redefined as a life-threatening disease involving organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. Biomarkers play an important role in early detection, diagnosis, and prognostication. We reviewed six promising biomarkers for detecting sepsis and systemic infection, including C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), interleukin-6 (IL-6), CD64, presepsin, and sTREM-1. Among the recent studies, we found the following risks of bias: only a few studies adopted the random or consecutive sampling strategy; extensive case-control analysis, which worsened the over-estimated performance; most of the studies used post hoc cutoff values; and heterogeneity with respect to the inclusion criteria, small sample sizes, and different quantitative synthesis methods applied in meta-analyses. We recommend that CD64 and presepsin should be considered as the most promising biomarkers for diagnosing sepsis. Future studies should enroll a larger sample size with a cohort rather than a case-control study design. A random or consecutive study design with a pre-specified laboratory threshold, consistent sampling timing, and an updated definition of sepsis will also increase the reliability of the studies. Further investigations of appropriate specimens, testing assays, and cutoff levels for specific biomarkers are also warranted.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging viral disease that has caused a global pandemic. Among emergency department (ED) patients, pediatric patient volume mostly and continuously decreased during the pandemic period. Decreased pediatric patient volume in a prolonged period could results in inadequate pediatric training of Emergency Medicine (EM) residents. We collected data regarding pediatric patients who were first seen by EM resident physicians between 1 February 2019, and 31 January 2021, which was divided into pre-epidemic and epidemic periods by 1 February 2020. A significant reduction in pediatric patients per hour (PPH) of EM residents was noted in the epidemic period (from 1.55 to 0.81, p < 0.001). The average patient number was reduced significantly in the classification of infection (from 9.50 to 4.00, p < 0.001), respiratory system (from 84.00 to 22.00, p < 0.001), gastrointestinal system (from 52.00 to 34.00, p = 0.007), otolaryngology (from 4.00 to 2.00, p = 0.022). Among the diagnoses of infectious disease, the most obvious drop was noted in the diagnosis of influenza and enterovirus infection. Reduced pediatric patient volume affected clinical exposure to pediatric EM training of EM residency. Changes in the proportion of pediatric diseases presented in the ED may induce inadequate experience with common and specific pediatric diseases.

Signa Vitae is an international peer-reviewed open access journal, which is currently indexed in SCIE, scopus, etc. It covers many aspects of adult, pediatric and neonatal intensive care, anesthesia and emergency medicine

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has greatly affected medical education in addition to clinical systems. Residency training has probably been the most affected aspect of medical education during the pandemic, and research on this topic is crucial for educators and clinical teachers. The aim of this study was to understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic comprehensively through a systematic review and analysis of related published articles. Methods A systematic review was conducted based on a predesigned protocol. We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE databases until November 30, 2020, for eligible articles. Two independent reviewers extracted data by using a customized form to record crucial information, and any conflicts between the two reviewers were resolved through discussion with another independent reviewer. The aggregated data were summarized and analyzed. Results In total, 53 original articles that investigated the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on residency training were included. Studies from various regions were included in the research, with the largest percentage from the United States (n = 25, 47.2%). Most of these original articles were questionnaire-based studies (n = 44, 83%), and the research target groups included residents (79.55%), program directors (13.64%), or both (6.82%). The majority of the articles (n = 37, 84.0%) were published in countries severely affected by the pandemic. Surgery (n = 36, 67.92%) was the most commonly studied field. Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected residency training globally, particularly surgical and interventional medical fields. Decreased clinical experience, reduced case volume, and disrupted education activities are major concerns. Further studies should be conducted with a focus on the learning outcomes of residency training during the pandemic and the effectiveness of assisted teaching methods.

Introduction: Abdominal pain is a common cause of emergency department (ED) visits, and non-specific abdominal pain (NSAP) accounts for a large proportion of diagnoses. Patients with severe mental illness (SMI) are particularly vulnerable due to their atypical disease presentation and high comorbidity rates. Previous studies have reported higher ED revisit rates and delayed diagnoses in patients with SMI and NSAP. This study aimed to evaluate ED management, unscheduled ED revisit rates, and short-term adverse outcomes in patients with SMI and NSAP.Methods: Relying on the Chang Gung Research Database (CGRD), we selectively used data from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2017. Diagnoses of NSAP and SMI were confirmed by combining the ICD codes with relevant medical records. The non-SMI group was matched at a ratio of 1:3 using a Greedy algorithm. The outcomes were ED management, 72-hour unscheduled ED revisits, and 7-day adverse events.Results: A total of 233,671 patients from seven hospitals over a span of 11 years were recruited; among them, 98,722 were excluded based on the inclusion criteria, leaving 134,949 patients for analysis. The SMI group had more comorbidities, a higher rate of 72-hour unscheduled ED revisits, and was more likely to receive analgesics, but less likely to undergo laboratory tests and CT scans. Patients without SMI were more likely to be admitted to the ward and undergo invasive abdominal procedures within seven days after index ED discharge. No significant differences were found in ICU admission, abdominal surgery, or in-hospital mortality between the two groups.Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that patients with SMI and NSAP had a higher rate of 72-hour unscheduled ED revisits, but this did not lead to higher short-term adverse outcomes. Although NSAP is considered a safe diagnosis for both the general population and patients with SMI, the higher rate of unscheduled ED revisits suggests the need for better healthcare interventions to eliminate health disparities in this vulnerable group.