22.03.2022: The treatment of patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction generally works well. Sometimes other suspected diagnoses become so urgent that treatment must be initiated rapidly. When acute myocardial infarction is suspected, the standard treatment protocol is immediate transportation to a hospital able to offer percutaneous coronary intervention, called a PCI centre. If the patient's condition necessitates it or the time required for transportation is too long, the shortest journey to a local hospital for thrombolytic treatment is chosen (1, 2). The Journal of the Norwegian Medical...

07.02.2022: The COVID-19 pandemic poses a biopsychosocial health risk to pregnant women, women in labour and infants throughout the world. COVID-19 is affecting pregnant women, women in labour and infants to a greater extent than we thought. In addition to the risk of serious maternal illnesses, there is also an increased risk of severe pregnancy complications, such as premature birth, preeclampsia and stillbirth (1, 2). In an article in this edition of the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association, Eberhard-Gran et al. describe how one-third of their sample of women who gave birth in Norway during the...

21.01.2022: Local authorities should make better use of their District Medical Officers' expertise. District medical officers have received much attention during the coronavirus pandemic. We have seen that when combined with local knowledge, public health expertise has ensured efficient handling of the pandemic at the local level. However, infection control is only one of several jobs assigned to district medical officers. Municipal executives have paid tribute to the efforts of infection control specialists during the pandemic, but they tend to be less familiar with the benefits that the localised public...

13.01.2022: Knowledge about the outcomes among COVID-19 patients admitted to a local hospital in the Oslo area provides key information preparing us for the next wave of coronavirus infections. In this issue of the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association, Myrstad and colleagues present the course of illness and treatment for the 300 COVID-19 patients who were admitted to Bærum Hospital during the first three 'waves' of coronavirus infection in 2020 and 2021 (1). Bærum Hospital is a relatively large local hospital that caters to nearly 200 000 inhabitants. For a department with approx. 90 beds, eight...

13.01.2022: Electrical shock should be avoided, even though low-voltage shock is not as dangerous as previously thought. It is hard to fit your fingers, big or small, in a socket. Even a knitting needle can no longer be easily inserted after the introduction of new child-proof sockets with special barriers. It works if you use two knitting needles at the same time, but even then the earth-leakage circuit breaker will usually shut off the current so you don't notice anything. However, if the earth leakage circuit breaker does not trip, your fingers will clamp around the knitting needles in each hand and...

10.01.2022: Better planning and the restructuring of medical studies and specialist training can help in the recruitment of general practitioners to rural areas. How are healthcare personnel recruited to jobs in rural areas? We know that healthcare professionals with a rural affiliation and who have had positive experiences from general practice and rural exposure during their studies and clinical placements are more likely to settle outside the cities (1). The Norwegian Centre for Rural Medicine has participated in a seven-year international collaboration with Sweden, Iceland, Canada and Scotland on a...