Improving Your ED Efficiency: Upgrade This Elusive Skill
No specialty in medicine requires “efficiency” more than Emergency Medicine (EM). Being able to seamlessly and quickly move between tasks is a necessary skill to function in the Emergency Department (ED). The controlled chaos and many moving parts can be overwhelming to new learners in the department and takes dedicated time and experience to overcome. Along with learning the necessary medical knowledge, efficiency expertise is crucial to becoming a high-performing emergency physician. Unfortunately, there is minimal formal training on how to maximize efficiency skills, leading many new EM learners (e.g. medical students and junior residents) having to troubleshoot and create [+]
Teorías de la Educación en la Práctica (Education Theory Made Practical): An International Collaboration
The vast majority of medical education materials (free or with cost) are available in the English language, a consequence of its hegemony as the language of science at a global level. In the world there are about 560 million people who speak Spanish, 460 million are native speakers, so Spanish is the language that has the second largest population of native speakers in the world after Mandarin. Although written English is understood by the Spanish-speaking community of health professionals, the best way to fully understand a text is reading it in the mother tongue! It is therefore important to thank [+]
IDEA Series: Acute Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) Escape Room
Adult learning theory supports medical educators in moving away from long lectures with minimal engagement from the learners [1]. Core emergency medicine (EM) topics lend themselves well to interactive methods such as gamification [2]. Puzzle-based activities can successfully facilitate team building in medical education [3]. EM residents commonly encounter acute venous thromboembolism (VTE) in the ED and must know the spectrum of presentations and approach to evaluation and treatment, including the use of risk stratification calculators. The Innovation To improve teaching of acute VTE to EM residents, we created a puzzle-based activity called “Acute VTE Escape Room.” Two teams competed [+]
Holiday Gift Guide for ALiEM Readers: Top 5 Favorite Tech Tools
Technology continues to integrate with our life -- for better and worse. Our team felt that the following 5 tech tools added value and joy to our lives, and so we are sharing with you. These also make great gifts for the emergency physician or healthcare provider in your life this holiday season. Blinkist is a professional book summary subscription service that condenses key points from non-fiction books into 15-minute reads. This is an efficient way to catch with all those books that you have been putting off. The Headspace app is one of the frequently used mindfulness app in [+]
Holiday Gift Guide for ALiEM Readers: Top 7 Favorite Level-Up Gear
The difference between a great shift in the Emergency Department and a frustrating one can sometimes be attributable to having the right gear or peri-shift routine. Listed are the top 6 "level-up" tools, recommended by our team. We have a very limited supply of custom ALiEM socks available at $20 per medium-sized pair. These socks have been rumored to quell the blackest of black clouds in the Emergency Department. It may be because of the "Stomping Out Disease" mantra on the socks. You'll have to try for yourself. We have orange (with the COVID-19 graphic) and lime green socks. These [+]
Holiday Gift Guide for ALiEM Readers: Top 7 Favorite Books
With the holiday season rapidly approaching, we polled the ALiEM team on favorite books to buy for yourself or a fellow healthcare provider. Many of us try to make time to read in our busy schedules to learn, be entertained, understand, process, and grow. As Truman stated, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” View our top 7 recommendations below. 1. Tricks of the Trade in Emergency Medicine We are biased, but we believe that the Tricks of the Trade book would make a lovely coffee table gift for you or your colleague. The hardbound, color print [+]
How I Work Smarter: Mark Ramzy, DO EMT-P
One word that best describes how you work? Focused Current mobile device Samsung Galaxy S20 Computer Samsung Notebook 9 What is something you are working on now? Ultrasound Teaching Curriculum (both image review and interpretation) that can be made virtual and in very small group sessions with focused teaching and infographics. How did you come up with this Idea/Project? We performed a needs assessment in ultrasound learning across different divisions and specialties (IM, Anesthesia, etc) within the hospital. This didn't just include medical students and residents/fellows, but also included attendings and faculty members with a longitudinal component to teaching. [+]
EM Match Advice: Where did all the jobs go, and did the applicants follow?
In this episode of EM Match Advice, our panel takes on the tough issues of 2021. Specifically we discuss the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Workforce Study [1] that projects fewer jobs for emergency physicians and the hot-off-the-press ERAS data showing a drop in the number of EM residency applicants, compared to 2 years ago. Did one cause the other? In this podcast, Dr. Mike Gisondi and Dr. Michelle Lin host an esteemed panel of 3 program directors, Dr. Cassandra Bradby (East Carolina University), Dr. Adam Kellogg (Baystate Health), and Dr. Craig Krausz (Saint Louis University). The Numbers The [+]
The 1440 Doctor: 3 Tips for Combating Distractions while Working From Home
We have all been there. You sit down to write your next masterpiece that you know any journal would be lucky to accept and “ding” your phone goes off. You check it, you type a few words on the google document, you hear some yelling in the other room (A kid? Your neighbor's kid?). You try to focus and tell yourself not to worry about it. You need to get this section of the paper written today. The doorbell rings, you hop up to see what it is. Amazon has arrived. Sound familiar? Our brains are hardwired for distraction. Back in [+]
IDEA Series: DIY Suture Kit Station
In medical training there is a lack of simulation based activities including procedural labs. Suturing is a critical skill for trainees to master in the emergency department. However, supervised practice is needed prior to suturing a real patient for the first time. This innovation allows early trainees to master suturing while on shift, using easy to find materials, which increases procedural competency and confidence. This activity allows the teacher to assess and correct the trainees procedural skills prior to attempting to suture a real patient. Name of innovation This Do-It-Yourself Suture Kit Station incorporates easy to find materials available in [+]
Director of Growth, Strategic Alliance Initiative, Center for Innovation and Digital Health
Massachusetts General Hospital;
Chief Scientific Officer, Conductscience.com
Latest posts by Shuhan He, MD (see all)
- Suboxone and the Emergency Physician: Get Waivered Training - August 12, 2022
- A Tale of Two Epidemics: COVID-19 and the Opioid Crisis - April 23, 2020
- Teaching in the age of COVID-19: Enhancing discussion with digital asynchronous chats - March 18, 2020