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Abstract:
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Clinical prognostic scores are increasingly used to streamline care in well-resourced settings. The potential benefits of identifying patients at risk of clinical deterioration and poor outcome, delivering appropriate higher level clinical care, and increasing efficiency are clear. In this focused review, we examine the use and applicability of severity scores applied to patients with community acquired pneumonia in resource poor settings. We challenge clinical researchers working in such systems to consider the generalisability of existing severity scores in their populations, and where performance of scores is suboptimal, to promote efforts to develop and validate new tools for the benefit of patients and healthcare systems.
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