Clinical Conversations

Your monthly clinical update from Ambulance Victoria covering:
Paediatric anaphylaxis and asthma – a message from Safer Care Victoria
Pre-hospital blood products
Patient safety update: CSO Matt Shepard on paediatric airway management
Guideline monitoring: Head injury guideline
Paper(s) of the month: 
Torniquet use for severe bleeding | Pre-hospital vital signs
Equipment update
Professional development opportunities
Small steps to transform your practice
Resources
Paediatric Anaphylaxis: Acute Paediatric Asthma and Anaphylaxis – Practice point | Safer Care Victoria
Pre-hospital Blood Products:
BloodSafe eLearning Australia: Clinical Transfusion Practice: Pre-hospital and Retrieval
RePHILL Trial: Resuscitation with blood products in patients with trauma-related haemorrhagic shock…
Prehospital Whole Blood in Traumatic Haemorrhage: Randomised Controlled Trial (NEJM)
Mitra et al. (2023), Pre-hospital Freeze-Dried Plasma for Critical Bleeding After Trauma: A Pilot R…
System and Sustainability Considerations
Young PP, Wood D, Holcomb JB, Jenkins DH, Levy MJ. Scaling of Prehospital Blood: A Model Describing…
Whole Blood Research
Hadley J, Conner J, Thomas C, et al. Whole Blood First Resuscitation and Association of Blood Produ…
Ambulance Victoria Resources: Blood Component Access
WIN/OPS/404 Blood Component Access from Air Ambulance Victoria: Essendon Fields. Describes pathways for metropolitan and inner regional access to blood components through AAV. 
WIN/OPS/405 Blood Component Access from a Health Service. Describes pathways for regional and remote access to blood components via health services and Adult Retrieval Victoria. 
 
Positioning Infants for Airway Management (video)
Hear more from Matt Shepard in the Prehospital Nerds podcast: Website | TikTok
 
Paper(s) of the month:
Prehospital tourniquet use and associated outcomes in a low-resource conflict setting
Prehospital physiologic instability and in-hospital mortality among non-trauma patients with low-ri…
 

Get in touch
clinicalguidelines@ambulance.vic.gov.au
Linkedin
James
Ben

Producer: Liam Mylebry

Can a machine diagnose, triage, document a case, or show empathy? AI is everywhere and the pace of change makes it difficult to know when to stop and take stock. In this episode, we explain how AI works for clinicians, what the evidence shows, what the risks and benefits are in healthcare, and what it means for our clinical practice. 
 
Disclaimer: While we did our best to ensure the content was accurate, we don’t script everything  and sometimes we do make mistakes. If you hear something in this episode that you disagree with, we want to hear from you, so please get in touch.  

Further resources 
AI-Assisted Decision Trees for Emergency Call Classification: The IAppel Project | Springer Nature Link 
Transforming Health Care Through Chatbots for Medical History-Taking and Future Directions: Comprehensive Systematic Review - PubMed 
Clinical Reasoning of a Generative Artificial Intelligence Model Compared With Physicians - PMC 
A systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic performance comparison between generative AI and physicians - PubMed 
Large Language Model Influence on Diagnostic Reasoning: A Randomized Clinical Trial 
Assessing the potential of GPT-4 to perpetuate racial and gender biases in health care: a model evaluation study 
Comparing ambient scribes: a randomized crossover clinical trial addressing ambient scribe technologies’ impact on physician burnout 
Ambient AI Scribes in Clinical Practice: A Randomized Trial 
 
Get in touch 
⁠clinicalguidelines@ambulance.vic.gov.au⁠ 
 
Socials 
David: ⁠@expensivecare⁠ | @expensivecare.bsky.social | LinkedIn 
James: https://linktr.ee/ClinicalConversations 
 
Producer: Liam Mylebry

Your monthly clinical update covering:
· Clinical Practice Update:
Forthcoming CPG changes including AF referral pathways, low‑risk chest pain risk scoring, and paediatric gastro guideline 
Ebola bulletin and CHO advisory
Cardiac Arrest Team Performance Report: insights and practical takeaways for improving CPR quality
PANDA trial update
· Patient safety update: Non-transport decisions, assessment, trusting our equipment
· Paper of the month: 
Naloxone and Clinical Outcomes in Suspected Opioid-Associated Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests | Emergency Medicine | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network 
Naloxone for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Due to Opioid Toxicity | Emergency Medicine | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network 
· Equipment update: Hypothermia, auxiliary purchase list updates, and giving sets
· Professional development opportunities:
Expression of Interest - 2026 CAA Congress Attendance 
Grand Round | 23 June 2026 
· Small steps to improve your practice
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Get in touch 
clinicalguidelines@ambulance.vic.gov.au 
Linkedin 
James 
Ben 
 
 
Producer: Liam Mylebry

Your monthly clinical update covering:
·  CPG updates: New measles CPG + updated CPP for ACOs & CERTs 
·  Hand hygiene refresher: Back to basics in challenging environments 
·  Cardiac arrest outcomes: Conversation with Ziad Nehme on recent improvements 
·  Survey plug: Clinical & Operational Service Delivery Plan 
·  Patient safety: Case review – consulting via the Clinician when engaging external agencies (e.g. PIPER) 
·  Tourniquets: Balancing risks and benefits 
·  Paper of the month: Ambulance offload delays and causes of ramping 
·  Equipment update 
·  Professional development highlights 
·  Small steps: Practical changes to transform your practice
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CPG update: CPG update – April 2026
VOD update: Updated guidance - Requests for Verification of Death (VOD)

Hand hygiene:
Take Five for Hand Hygiene
Transmission based precautions clinical work instruction
CWI OPS 184 Infection Prevention and Control Transmission Based Precautions.pdf

Paper of the month: Initiatives to reduce ambulance offload delays in emergency departments: a scoping review - PubMed

Professional development:
Fast Tracked Higher Education Pathway for AV Clinical Instructors – Now Open for Mid-Year Intake
Clinical Insights: Issue 8 now available
The Australasian College of Paramedicine Conference | ACPIC26
CAA Congress | The Council of Ambulance Authorities Inc.
Trauma 2026 Conference - Trauma Conference
SAS Events – Safe Airway Society

Clinical Technology and Equipment Committee Idea Sharing: Clinical Technology and Equipment Committee / CTEC@ambulance.vic.gov.au 

Get in touch: clinicalguidelines@ambulance.vic.gov.au
Linkedin
James
Ben

 
 
Producer

Your monthly clinical update from James Oswald (Clinical Practice Guideline Specialist) and A/Prof Ben Meadley (Director of Paramedicine).
This month's episode covers:
Planned updates to CPGs in 2026
Posterior Stroke
Patient Care Records
Evaluation data of droperidol and dexamethasone as antiemetics
Paper of the Month: IV vs IO in cardiac arrest
Equipment update
Professional development opportunities
Small steps to transform your practice
Paper of the Month Vascular access by paramedics during cardiopulmonary resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A retrospective study of insertion success rates and survival outcomes of intravenous versus intraosseous route
 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735675726000628 
Professional Development Opportunities
The Australasian College of Paramedicine | Primary Care Conference 2026
ACP 2026 Education Grants: 2026 Education Grants Open
Posterior Stroke
Not so FAST: pre-hospital posterior circulation stroke - PMC
Get in touch
clinicalguidelines@ambulance.vic.gov.au
X / Twitter 
James: ⁠⁠⁠@JamesOz1⁠⁠ 
Ben: ⁠@ben_meadley⁠
Linkedin
James
Ben
Producer: Liam Hennebry