Mitchell P. Fink – författare

Every medical specialty has as its basis a core of classic papers which both reflects the historical background and gives insight into its present and future developments. The selected papers in this volume highlight landmarks in the development of critical care medicine. Internationally acclaimed experts have chosen what they consider to be the most important papers in their respective subspecialties. Each entry follows a set format, starting with the abstract and the reference to the original source of publication. This is followed by analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the paper and the contribution it has made to the development of critical care. Additional information including citation score of each paper is given together with detailed analysis of the top 500 most widely cited papers.

Although its roots date back to the early decades of the 20th century, critical care medicine did not emerge as a specialty in medicine until the 1970’s. Over the last 30 years or so, the field of critical care medicine has grown tremendously and there is now a solid body of scientific information that forms the foundation for the practice of critical care medicine. But, now as physicians and hospitals around the world focus to an ever greater extend on providing high quality care, the practice of critical care medicine will continue to grow in visibility and importance among clinicians and the general public as well.

This book seeks to identify the trends in critical care medicine that will form the basis for practice over the next ten years. Predicting the future is always risky. Nevertheless, the ideas articulated in this book are likely to serve as a road map for intensivists, hospital administrators and governmental leaders interested in healthcare, as they seek to improve the quality and efficiency of hospital-based services.