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university students' awareness and attitude towards family medicine specialty. AbstractBackground: Worldwide, there is shortage of family medicine (FM) specialists and disinterest of medical students in choosing FM as a career. Saudi Arabia is facing the same problem.Objectives: The aim of this study was to know the magnitude of knowledge and attitude of Saudi medical and non-medical students towards FM specialty.Methods: A cross-sectional study was done on 708 students of Taif University using a self-administered questionnaire about socio-demographic factors, knowledge and attitude towards FM specialty.Results: Medical students showed a significant higher percentage of students who saw that FM specialty has an essential social function, has a pleasant working environment, has a high social status, is an attractive option for a medical students, is an interesting specialty from a research perspective, and is an important specialty in: disease prevention/Health promotion, familyfocused health care, bio-psychosocial focus of health care, collaboration with other sectors, team work, bioethics, and urgent care. Only 6% of medical students chose FM as a future career, and the most common factor influencing the specialty preferences was the good working condition and the quality of life. Female students and older grades showed a significant higher percentage of students choosing FM as a future career. For all participants, the study reflects the bad reputation about FM specialty regarding its status within the medical profession, scientific prestige and salary.Conclusion: Medical students had better knowledge and perception of family medicine compared to non-medical students, but they had low interest in choosing it as a future career.

The use of radiological images is widespread in the emergency department (ED) as physicians commonly rely on them during initial evaluations to confirm diagnoses, contributing to prolonged waiting times. This study aimed to determine the relationship between commonly gathered triage data and the need for radiological imaging. Data were collected from electronic charts that contained routinely collected hospital data at the time of triage in the King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC) in Riyadh ED. The binary logistic regression results demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between age and radiological imaging ordered in the ED. Each one-unit increase in age corresponded to a 0.983-fold increase in the likelihood of ordering radiological imaging (odds ratio: 0.983, 95% confidence interval: 0.972-0.995, p = 0.004). In contrast, hypertension, diabetes, and heart failure were independent predictors of the need for radiological imaging in the ED (p >0.05). Patient data that are immediately available during ED triage can be used to predict the need for radiological imaging during ED visits. Such models can identify patients who may require radiological imaging during ED visits and expedite patient disposition.

Upper gastro intestinal bleeding is one of the most common reasons of emergency department visits, totaling up to 400,000 annual admissions in the United States. Peptic ulcer disease and variceal bleeding are two of the most common causes of GI bleeding. Several studies have been done, and major advancements were made in its management leading to significant drop in morbidity and mortality. Our aim is to study the common causes of upper gastrointestinal bleeding that come to the emergency department and understand the latest guidelines to manage them. We conducted this review using a comprehensive search of PubMed, MEDLINE, and EMBASE from March 1981, through November 2017. The following search terms were used: upper gastro intestinal bleeding, management of upper GI bleeding, variceal bleeding, peptic ulcer bleeding, hemorrhage in the emergency department. Acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding is one of the most common cases encountered in the emergency department and leading to significant morbidity and mortality. Clearing airway and breathing and stabilizing the vitals of the patient by achieving hemodynamic stability and bleeding control is the primary goal in the emergency department.