Non invasive positive pressure ventilation has emerged in prime time

As if we didn't already know that, here's a paper documenting recent trends in use. It concludes:

Conclusions: NIV occupies an important role in the management of acute respiratory failure in acute care hospitals in selected US hospitals and is being used for a large majority of patients with acute-on-chronic respiratory failure and acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema. NIV use appears to have increased substantially in selected US hospitals over the past decade.