Clinical Assistant Rasmus Hesselfeldt from Department of Anaesthesiology has won for best abstract on the Euroanaesthesia 2012 congress – chosen from 867 abstracts.
Five finalists were chosen from 867 abstracts accepted for the meeting on the Euroanaesthesia 2012 congress. And the winner was Rasmus Hesselfeldt for his abstract “A physician staffed helicopter improves triage and reduces mortality for severely injured trauma patients”.
As reported in the E-newsletter of the congress:The two year study, carried out between 2009 and 2011, assessed the impact of a helicopter equipped with a consultant anaesthetist on mortality rates in patients with severe trauma. All of these patients were at least 30 minutes drive from the trauma centre at the University Hospital Copenhagen, and the study took place during daylight hours. The average journey time from these remote areas to the trauma centre reduced from 218 minutes before introduction of the helicopter to 90 minutes after, and morality in these severely injured patients reduced from 28% to 14%, a statistically significant reduction.
“We had noticed that some of our neighbour countries had implemented a helicopter-based system for patients far from trauma centres,” said Rasmus Hesselfeldt. “The Danish Government is aware of our results, and has started a second trial assessing the impact of a helicopter system 24 hours a day in another part of Denmark. Together, the results of these two trials will inform future policy in Denmark.” He added: “It’s a very great honour to win, and this will inspire me to continue in research.”