Michael Butler

Michael Butler
University of Saskatchewan | U of S · Department of Family Medicine

MD, MSc Statistics

About

48
Publications
4,345
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
509
Citations
Introduction
Michael Butler is a rural family medicine resident in La Ronge, Saskatchewan. He is interested in emergency medicine, critical care and rural medicine. He is also a practicing statistician. His primary research interest is in the application of machine-learning to clinical problems, and the utilization of Electronic Medical Records and Registries to improve patient outcomes.
Additional affiliations
September 2013 - April 2014
Dalhousie University
Position
  • Research Assistant
Description
  • Taught multiple tutorial lectures for an introductory statistics course.
September 2013 - April 2014
Students Offering Support
Position
  • Director of Tutors
Description
  • Coordinated various volunteer tutors. Developed the introductory statistics curriculum.
Education
August 2014 - August 2018
Dalhousie University
Field of study
  • Doctorate of Medicine
September 2013 - October 2014
Dalhousie University
Field of study
  • M.Sc, Statistics

Publications

Publications (48)
Article
Full-text available
Objective To evaluate the effect, on birth weight and birth weight centile, of use of the PrenaBelt, a maternal positional therapy device, during sleep in the home setting throughout the third trimester of pregnancy. Design A double-blind, sham-controlled, randomised clinical trial. Setting Conducted from September 2015 to May 2016, at a single,...
Article
Introduction Death due to opioid overdose was declared a public health crisis in Canada in 2015. Traditionally, patients who have overdosed on opioids that are managed by emergency medical services (EMS) are treated with the opioid antagonist naloxone, provided ventilatory support and subsequently transported to hospital. However, certain EMS agenc...
Article
Objective:: To investigate parents' understanding of the risks of primary cleft palate surgery after counseling with and without the use of a written informational aid. Design:: Prospective, randomized, single-blind trial. Setting:: Academic tertiary care center. Participants:: Parents of children undergoing primary cleft palate surgery. In...
Article
Introduction: The scene-size-up is a crucial first step in the response to a mass casualty incident (MCI). Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) may potentially enhance the scene-size-up with real-time visual feedback during chaotic, evolving or inaccessible events. We performed this study to test the feasibility of paramedics using UAV video from a simul...
Article
Full-text available
Objective To evaluate whether the percentage of time spent supine during sleep in the third trimester of pregnancy could be reduced using a positional therapy device (PrenaBelt) compared with a sham device. Design A double-blind, randomised, sham-controlled, cross-over pilot trial. Setting Conducted between March 2016 and January 2017, at a singl...
Article
CLINICIAN’S CAPSULE What is known about the topic? Advanced care paramedics (ACPs) in our emergency department (ED) successfully perform procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA) for several procedures, including orthopedic manipulations. What did this study ask? How does the novel practice of ACP-led ED PSA for upper gastrointestinal (UGI) endoscopy...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: Situational awareness (SA) is essential for maintenance of scene safety and effective resource allocation in mass casualty incidents (MCI). Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) can potentially enhance SA with real-time visual feedback during chaotic and evolving or inaccessible events. The purpose of this study was to test the ability of pa...
Article
Purpose: We aimed to evaluate the association between transfusion practices and clinical outcomes in patients with traumatic brain injury. Material and methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adult patients with moderate or severe traumatic brain injury admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of a level I trauma center between 20...
Article
Objectives Traditionally, a surgeon has served as trauma team leader (TTL). However, this role is increasingly being performed by emergency medicine (EM) physicians. At the Halifax Infirmary, we utilize a resident TTL (rTTL) under supervision of a staff traumatologist, a duty shared between EM and surgical residents. Our objective was to compare ou...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Radiology reports are one of the most important medical documents that a diagnostician looks into, especially in the emergency context. They provide the emergency physicians with critical information regarding the condition of the patient and help the physicians take immediate action on urgent conditions. However, the reports are in the form of uns...
Article
Full-text available
Background Eustachian tube (ET) dysfunction can be very difficult to diagnose accurately. Our aim is to determine whether a newly developed sonotubometric test using clicks can reliably detect ET opening during swallowing in normal ET subjects, and patulous ET (PET) in subjects with ET dysfunction. Methods Sixteen subjects (19 normal ET ears and 6...
Article
Background: Post-intubation hypotension (PIH) is common and associated with poor outcomes in critically ill patient populations requiring emergency endotracheal intubation (ETI). The importance of PIH in the trauma population remains unclear. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of PIH in trauma patients and assess the assoc...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives The Canadian Hospital Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP) is an injury surveillance program that informs prevention policy locally and nationally. It is of import that it is reflective of the underlying population. The objective of this study was to describe differences between those injuries that were captured by the progra...
Article
Full-text available
Objective Critics have raised concerns regarding the validity of maintenance of certification ( MOC ) programs. We sought to examine the quality of the randomized controlled trials ( RCT s) selected for the lifelong learning and self‐assessment ( LLS ) component of the American Board of Emergency Medicine ( ABEM ) MOC program. Methods We systemati...
Article
Introduction: The objective of this study was to evaluate adverse patient outcomes associated with the choice of intravenous fluid administered during general anaesthesia. Methods: This study was a retrospective chart review of vascular surgery patients at a Canadian tertiary care hospital. Patients were separated into three groups: those who we...
Article
Full-text available
BACKGROUND: Although used primarily in the pediatric population for decades, the use of intraosseous (IO) devices in the resuscitation of severely injured adult trauma patients has recently become more commonplace. The objective of this study was to determine the experience level, beliefs and attitudes of trauma practitioners in Canada, Australia a...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives: Various medications and devices are available for facilitation of emergent endotracheal intubations (EETIs). The objective of this study was to survey which medications and devices are being utilized for intubation by Canadian physicians. Methods: A clinical scenario-based survey was developed to determine which medications physician...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: Respiratory failure is a common problem in emergency medicine (EM) and critical care medicine (CCM). However, little is known about the resuscitation of critically ill patients prior to emergency endotracheal intubation (EETI). Our aim was to describe the resuscitation practices of EM and CCM physicians prior to EETI. Methods: A cros...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Soft-tissue fillers are increasingly being used for noninvasive facial rejuvenation. They generally offer minimal downtime and reliable results. However, significant complications are reported and patients need to be aware of these as part of informed consent. The Internet serves as a vital resource to inform patients of the risks and b...
Article
Full-text available
Variations of patient volumes in the ED according to days of the week and month of the year are well-established. Anecdotally, ED volumes follow ‘waves’ that correlate with previous days. Time-series models have traditionally been used in econometrics to develop financial models, but have been adapted in other fields, such as health informatics. Th...
Article
Full-text available
The chaotic environment of the emergency department has a deleterious effect on clinical judgement. The diagnosis of abdominal pathology is difficult to differentiate. There are also many diagnoses that could be considered abdominal in nature, exacerbating the task of diagnosing these patients. We propose a novel machine-learning method, Hierarchic...
Article
Acute upper gastrointestinal (UGI) bleeding is a relatively common emergency resulting in death in 6 to 8% of cases. UGI endoscopy is the intervention of choice which requires procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA). The Halifax Infirmary emergency department (ED) performs 1000 PSAs annually, performed by advanced care paramedics (ACPs). This has b...
Article
Pharyngitis is a common presenting complaint at the emergency department (ED). Historically, acute pharyngitis has been overdiagnosed as the result of a bacterial etiology, leading to over-prescription of antibiotics, and overuse of throat culturing. This study attempts to quantify the current management of acute pharyngitis in the ED, and compare...
Article
Full-text available
Emergency department (ED) crowding is a national challenge. Initiatives to help address this at our ED include the use of a six-bed fast-track unit staffed by advanced-care paramedics (ACPs). Institutional byelaws only allow diagnostic imaging (DI) ordering by physicians (MD). An ACP requesting DI at the time of first assessment would likely improv...
Article
Objective: To assess the effect of using hydroxyethyl starch (HES) for intraoperative fluid therapy on outcomes in high-risk vascular surgery patients. Design: Retrospective case series. Setting: Single-center academic hospital. Participants: The study included 1,395 adult vascular surgery patients with peripheral vascular disease. Interven...
Presentation
Full-text available
A talk about generalized boosted models, given to a health-sciences audience rather than a technical one
Article
Background: This prospective, randomized trial was undertaken to evaluate the utility of adding end-tidal capnometry (ETC) to pulse oximetry (PO) in patients undergoing procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA) in the emergency department (ED). Methods: The patients were randomized to monitoring with or without ETC in addition to the current stand...
Article
Full-text available
. Patients with hematologic malignancy (HM) often require intensive care unit (ICU) admission due to organ failure through disease progression or treatment-related complications. Objective . To determine mortality and prognostic variables in adult patients with HM who were admitted to ICU. Methods . Structured chart review of all adult patients (ag...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose To describe opioid use before and after intensive care unit (ICU) admission and to identify factors associated with chronic opioid use upto 4 years after ICU discharge. Methods Retrospective review of adult patients admitted to the ICU at a tertiary care center between January 1, 2005, to December 31, 2008. We defined “nonuser,” “intermitt...
Article
Context: Trauma patients requiring procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA) may have increased risk of adverse events (AEs) and poor outcomes. Aims: To determine the incidence of AEs in adult major trauma patients who received PSA and to evaluate their postprocedural outcomes. Settings and design: Retrospective analysis of adult patients (age >...
Article
Full-text available
A small proportion of pediatric sport- and recreation-related injuries are serious enough to be considered "major trauma." However, the immediate and long-term consequences in cases of pediatric major trauma are significant and potentially life-threatening. The objective of this study was to describe the incidence and outcomes of pediatric major tr...
Article
Full-text available
Background Postintubation hypotension (PIH) is an adverse event associated with poor outcomes in emergency department endotracheal intubations. Study objective was to determine the incidence of PIH and its impact on outcomes following tracheal intubation in a general anesthesia population. Methods Structured chart audit of adult patients intubated...
Article
To determine the incidence of postintubation hypotension (PIH) and associated outcomes in critically ill patients requiring endotracheal intubation. Medical records were reviewed for 479 consecutive critically ill adult patients who required intubation by an intensive care unit (ICU) service at 1 of 4 academic tertiary care hospitals. The primary o...
Article
Introduction: Propofol is a standard for adult emergency department procedural sedation (EDPS). Use in pediatric patients remains controversial. Our primary objective was to investigate whether adverse events occurred more frequently in teenage pediatric patients receiving propofol for EDPS. Methods: This retrospective study examines records fro...
Presentation
Background: Although used primarily in the pediatric population for decades, the use of intraosseous (IO) devices in the resuscitation of severely injured adult trauma patients has become more commonplace over the last few years. We therefore sought to determine the current experience level, beliefs and attitudes about the utility of IO device use...

Network

Cited By