title: Medical emergencies on board commercial airlines: is documentation as expected?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The purpose of this study was to perform a descriptive, content-based analysis on the different forms of documentation for in-flight medical emergencies that are currently provided in the emergency medical kits on board commercial airlines.
  
  
  METHODS
  Passenger airlines in the World Airline Directory were contacted between March and May 2011. For each participating airline, sample in-flight medical emergency documentation forms were obtained. All items in the sample documentation forms were subjected to a descriptive analysis and compared to a sample "medical incident report" form published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 1,318 airlines were contacted. Ten airlines agreed to participate in the study and provided a copy of their documentation forms. A descriptive analysis revealed a total of 199 different items, which were summarized into five sub-categories: non-medical data (63), signs and symptoms (68), diagnosis (26), treatment (22) and outcome (20).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data in this study illustrate a large variation in the documentation of in-flight medical emergencies by different airlines. A higher degree of standardization is preferable to increase the data quality in epidemiologic aeromedical research in the future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Allergology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Gudrunstr, 56, 44791 Bochum, Germany. michael.sand@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sand
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morrosch
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sand
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Altmeyer
authors.forename: Falk G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Bechara
mesh_terms: D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D000401:Aircraft; D004282:Documentation; D004630:Emergencies / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004638:Emergency Treatment; D006801:Humans; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires