I'm just thrilled that there's serious research going on. We (people in general) tend not to look too closely at things that are seen as mundane, or things we already know the answers to.
Take EMS (since I know a little about it): The gold standard since 1976 in crashes was to immobilize almost all people to a long back-board and apply a rigid cervical collar. The theory was if you splint the whole body (like a broken arm for instance) then you're protecting it until a doctor can examine things closely to determine if there's an injury. There were all sorts of anecdotal (unsubstantiated) tales of people walking away from crashes without any complaints and then turning their head and dropping dead of a broken neck. So this process was seen as OBVIOUS, and common sense, and no one EVER really studied the issue. As a result, ****tons of people were strapped to a long board "just in case" there was an injury. It was, in fact, required to do so. Yet for people with additional medical conditions this was causing real harm, not to mention the toil to EMTs who are told they MUST strap down the anxious, demented, elderly people who had fallen down and MIGHT have a back or neck injury.
Only in the last few years has this approach been questioned (I hate
JEMS but they do offer something of an overview), and they found that all this "just in case" crap was actually causing harm. And without a real indication of a neck or back injury, people shouldn't be routinely strapped down hannibal-lechter style. Yale did a great study showing that in almost every case of paramedics and doctors applying cervical collars there was significant manipulation of the neck and great potential to cause additional injury. With this new information protocols have changed and now we use a much less immobilizing techniques to treat people who have indications of injury, and leave people alone who don't.
So, now it is very uncommon to apply any kind of immobilization. The old adage of lay down and stay still until the ambulance arrives really no longer applies. Basically, if you're not hurt then you're likely not hurt. I used to strap people down almost every shift. Now it's maybe one every few months. I actually met a bicyclist who fell and was really not injured, but got up, walked to the sidewalk and then lay back down because he thought that's what the ambulance people would want...
It's amazing what you learn when you actually study an issue. I'm going to follow these guys and see what else they come up with. Hell, I'll volunteer to gather data.
