NPR Ted Talks: A non-medical podcast ready to inspire
Most of us have heard of TED talks and most of us have heard of NPR. But did you know that the two have paired together to give a fascinating weekly radio discussion? Since March 2013, NPR reporter and radio host Guy Raz (@NPRGuyRaz) has brought together innovators, leaders, and entrepreneurs among others to the radio format to inspire and enlighten the listener. This amazing free resource is a valuable non-medical podcast for doctors to access. [+]
ALiEM Book Club: THE CHECKLIST MANIFESTO – Join the conversation
New Horizons Do you like the ALiEM Book Club? Well we like you too!… so much so that we want YOU to join in on the next book discussion! We are taking the blog and book club to another level by pairing up with Dr. Teresa Chan (@TChanMD), an academic emergentologist from Canada. We are breaking the barriers of the internet and laying the foundation for a real-time, interactive discussion utilizing social media. [+]
ALiEM Book Club: Difficult Conversations
Debriefing is a difficult skill to acquire. It is a little to easy to ask accusatory questions when you witness things that went wrong, or in a direction not anticipated. It’s also hard when trying to keep your own horror and shock from what you just witnessed (how could you forget to get a fingerstick glucose??!!). But rarely these types of learning situations go well if we don’t learn how to develop high quality debriefing skills. Similarly without debriefing expertise, simulations that we conduct lose purpose and meaning. There are many ways to learn effective debriefing skills, and I want to share a [+]
Mass Casualty Anticipation – An essential, instinctual skill of EM physicians
Emergency medicine is full of surprises, twists, and turns. We don’t know what type of patient we will encounter prior to a shift, but we are ready for any and all. That being said, preparation is essential prior to the arrival of critical patients. This is why the airway cart is checked before starting a shift or the position of the bedside ultrasound machine is always mentally tracked in order to quickly grab if needed. Unfortunately, individual preparation is not sufficient for large scale disasters. This level of preparation must happen on a hospital and interdepartmental level such as coordination between trauma [+]
ALiEM Sim Case Series: Mass Casualty Building Bombing
Case Writer: Nikita Joshi, MD Keywords: Mass casualty incident, building bombing, disaster, triage, ethics Educational Objectives Medical Develop system of triage to optimize patient outcomes in prehospital disaster setting Effectively utilize color coded tagging method to assist in categorizing patients Develop treatment plans to address immediate emergency conditions per ATLS protocols Communication Maintain team and personnel safety precautions Regularly provide updates to incident command center [+]
ALiEM Book Club: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Just like scores of other premedical students all striving to get acceptance to medical school, I volunteered and did research during college. I elected to work in the Virology department because I wanted to study viruses like HIV, RSV, and SARS that were causing havoc on our society. I do recall that we used HeLa cells frequently in our research. In fact, most scientists in that department used HeLa cells on a regular basis regardless of the focus of their projects. I didn’t think much of the cells and I definitely never thought of where or from whom those cells [+]
Launching the ALiEM Book Club
Everyone involved in medicine has read a significant amount of books over their lifetime. Some of those books were read willingly, whereas others not so willingly (sorry, Histology textbook). Regardless, most of us have an inner love of reading and continue to do so even when we are not forced to do so for a test or class. We are launching “The ALiEM Book Club”! [+]
Reflections on CMS Simulation Instructor Course
I just completed the 4 day intensive Center for Medical Simulation Institute for Medical Simulation Instructor Course. The title of the course is a mouthful and just as intense and high yield as the actual course was itself. The chief purpose of the course is to develop debriefing skills as a medical instructor. The structure and nature of the course seemed so effortless and fluid, and yet at the end of the 4 days, I knew that the debriefing skills I had learned were ingrained into my brain. I highly recommend this course to any medical educator with simulation interest. [+]
Navigating the waters of medical education and social media
SUNY Downstate Department of Emergency Medicine held a lecture series May 22, 2013 as a primer for the EM residents on how to use social media to enhance medical education. This session was designed to be an introduction for the novice on how to get the most out of FOAM (Free Open Access Meducation), Twitter, and Blogging with a section on professionalism. Invited speakers included Drs. David Marcus, Jeremy Faust, Jordana Haber, and myself Nikita Joshi. The slides from the session are presented below. Enjoy! [+]
Pitfalls to avoid in collecting patient related teaching materials
Educators are eager to gather valuable learning tools such as EKGs and x-rays to be used in teaching for our learners, whether from our home institutions or internationally through the internet. However, this may not always be seen as altruistic; history and even modern day medicine is full of examples of misguided attempts to further medicine at the expense of patients such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment from 1932-1972. The focus of this post is how to go about collecting patient data for teaching purposes and avoiding confidentiality and consent violations while always remaining respectful of the patient and their [+]
Director of Growth, Strategic Alliance Initiative, Center for Innovation and Digital Health
Massachusetts General Hospital;
Chief Scientific Officer, Conductscience.com
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