Global emergency medicine: A scoping review of the literature from 2023

Abstract

Objective: The Global Emergency Medicine Literature Review (GEMLR) highlights the highest-quality research addressing emergency care in resource-limited settings (ECRLS). This 18th edition reviews global emergency medicine (GEM) literature published during 2023.

Methods: A scoping review of GEM articles published in 2023 was performed using a systematic PubMed search and manual gray literature (GRAY) search. Reviewers and editors from 10 countries screened articles utilizing case definitions of three categories of GEM research-disaster and humanitarian response (DHR), ECRLS, and emergency medicine development (EMD). After duplicates and those not meeting authorship equity and ethical review requirements were removed, articles were scored according to rubrics for original research (OR), review articles (RE), and GRAY. Those in the top 5% from any category were summarized and critiqued in narrative review.

Results: There were 58,291 articles identified in the main search and 11,035 in the GRAY search. A total of 825 articles from the main search and 37 GRAY articles screened in and were scored. Fifty-five main search articles and one GRAY article were included after scoring, a 52.8% increase from 2022 despite <1% change in search volume. ECRLS remained the largest category (63%). As in previous years, articles frequently addressed emergencies in pediatrics (10 articles), trauma (9), prehospital care (8), maternal/neonatal care (6), education/training (6), disaster medicine (4), and airway/sedation management (4). A total of 3.5% of screened-in articles failed to meet GEMLR's new authorship equity and ethics standards.

Conclusions: The quantity and quality of GEM research continues to grow as measured by the GEMLR scoring system. A revised search string identified relevant GEM articles with broad application in global settings. New equity guidelines were successfully implemented. This review summarizes the highest quality current GEM research while providing evolving guidelines for best practices in performing this important and rapidly growing work.