A 65-year-old male with a history of hypertension presents to the emergency department (ED) with new onset of non-traumatic back pain. The patient is investigated for life-threatening diagnoses and screened for “red flag symptoms,” including fever, neurologic abnormalities, bowel/bladder symptoms, and a history of injectiondrug use (IVDU). The patient is treated symptomatically and discharged home but represents to the ED three additional times, each time with new and progressive symptoms. At the time of admission, he is unable to ambulate, has perineal anesthesia, and 500 cc of urinary retention. Whole spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirms a thoracic spinal epidural abscess. This case, and many like it, prompts the questions: when should emergency physicians consider the diagnosis of a spinal epidural abscess, and what is the appropriate evaluation of these patients in the ED? (Figure 1).

A 43-year-old male, with a history of chronic back pain, presents to the emergency department (ED) with acute onset chronic pain. He states he “tweaked something” and has been debilitated by back pain, radiating down both his legs, for 24 hours. He has not had a bowel movement but denies noticing any “saddle anesthesia.” His clinical exam is limited by pain, and it is difficult to determine if he has objective weakness. His perineal sensation is intact, as is his sensation upon digital rectal examination. The patient has a post-void residual of 250 mL, but you are unsure how to interpret this value. As an emergency physician, when should you suspect, and how should you evaluate cauda equina syndrome?

Recent years have seen an exponential increase in the variety of healthcare data captured across numerous sources. However, mechanisms to leverage these data sources to support scientific investigation have remained limited. In 2013 the Pediatric Heart Network (PHN), funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, developed the Integrated CARdiac Data and Outcomes (iCARD) Collaborative with the goals of leveraging available data sources to aid in efficiently planning and conducting PHN studies; supporting integration of PHN data with other sources to foster novel research otherwise not possible; and mentoring young investigators in these areas. This review describes lessons learned through the development of iCARD, initial efforts and scientific output, challenges, and future directions. This information can aid in the use and optimisation of data integration methodologies across other research networks and organisations.

Background: Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) is the leading cause of spinal cord impairment. In a public healthcare system, wait times to see spine specialists and eventually access surgical treatment for CSM can be substantial. The goals of this study were to determine consultation wait times (CWT) and surgical wait times (SWT), and identify predictors of wait time length. Methods: Consecutive patients enrolled in the Canadian Spine Outcomes and Research Network (CSORN) prospective and observational CSM study from March 2015 to July 2017 were included. A data-splitting technique was used to develop and internally validate multivariable models of potential predictors. Results: A CSORN query returned 264 CSM patients for CWT. The median was 46 days. There were 31% mild, 35% moderate, and 33% severe CSM. There was a statistically significant difference in median CWT between moderate and severe groups; 207 patients underwent surgical treatment. Median SWT was 42 days. There was a statistically significant difference in SWT between mild/moderate and severe groups. Short symptom duration, less pain, lower BMI, and lower physical component score of SF-12 were predictive of shorter CWT. Only baseline pain and medication duration were predictive of SWT. Both CWT and SWT were shorter compared to a concurrent cohort of lumbar stenosis patients (p <0.001). Conclusions: Patients with shorter duration (either symptoms or medication) and less neck pain waited less to see a spine specialist in Canada and to undergo surgical treatment. This study highlights some of the obstacles to overcome in expedited care for this patient population.