Video: Crash course on Prezi

Dr. Rob Rogers has started a great series of videos which highlight resources and tools which medical educators may find useful and innovative. This video takes you on a guided tour through making a Prezi presentation. Although I am still torn about using Prezi as a delivery tool because of the excessive motion-based transitions, I do like such features as:

Really professional looking templates
The presentations can live online and/or on your desktop
Ability to easily embed videos
Ability to see your entire presentation on the canvas
Allows more flexibility in content delivery
It just looks cool.

You can look for more excellent videos on the Academic Emergency Medicine Education Masters site. Hey maybe you can next teach people how to use Google Reader, Evernote, Dropbox!

By Michelle Lin, MD|2019-01-28T22:25:01-08:00Feb 27, 2012|Social Media & Tech|

Paucis Verbis: Anaphylaxis

Anaphylaxis is one of the most under-appreciated and under-treated conditions in the Emergency Department. A common misperception is that you need hypotension to diagnose it. Below is a brief summary of the diagnostic criteria and ED treatment protocol. Immediate administration of IM epinephrine is critical.

A major challenge is deciding which patients can go home and which need to be admitted, because of the risk of “rebound” or a biphasic anaphylactic response. This may occur as late as 72 hours later, but typically occur within the first 24 hours. There isn’t a good answer for this.

What’s your practice in dispositioning these patients? Personally, I admit at least those patients who present with severe hypotension, require more than 1 epinephrine dose, or have poor social support.

NOTE: Unlike the photo on the top, warn patients NOT to rest their thumb on the device because of the risk inadvertent needle puncture.

PV Card: Anaphylaxis

Adapted from [1, 2]
Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

References

Arnold J, Williams P. Anaphylaxis: recognition and management. Am Fam Physician. 2011;84(10):1111-1118. [PubMed]
Simons FER. Anaphylaxis. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 2010;125(2):S161-S181. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2009.12.981

By Michelle Lin, MD|2021-10-10T19:17:26-07:00Feb 24, 2012|ALiEM Cards, Allergy-Immunology|

Live-blogging: UCSF High Risk EM Hawaii conference

Today is the pre-day for our department’s 2nd annual High Risk Emergency Medicine conference in Hawaii. The day’s focus is on ultrasonography. Keep a lookout below as I try to live-blog some of the clinical pearls that I glean from the day (using Google Docs).

(more…)

By Michelle Lin, MD|2019-01-28T22:24:35-08:00Feb 15, 2012|Social Media & Tech|

Paucis Verbis: Pediatric fever without a source (3 mo-3 yr)

In part 3 of this “Pediatric Fever Without a Source” Paucis Verbis cards, we now cover febrile infants 3 months to 3 years old (PV cards for birth-28 days and 29 days-3 months old).

Notes:

The algorithm below is a guideline for NON-toxic patients. More ill-appearing children require a more broad workup.
For the under-immunized (<2 PCV immunizations) and temperature ≥39.5C, blood cultures may be falling out of favor in the near future, because the incidence of blood culture contaminants is close to exceeding the true incidence of occult bacteremia.

PV Card: Pediatric Fever Without a Source (3 Months-3 Years)

<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>
Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

Thanks to Dr. Hemal Kanzaria (UCSF-SFGH resident) for helping design this PV card and Dr. Christine Cho, Dr. Andi Marmor, and Dr. Ellen Laves (UCSF Pediatrics) for the content.

By Michelle Lin, MD|2021-10-11T15:10:11-07:00Feb 10, 2012|ALiEM Cards, Pediatrics|

Blog incubation project: New 2 winners!

And the winners of the first ever EM Blog Incubator competition are…

Dr. Jim Campagna (Emergency physician at St Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, NY) and Dr. Timothy Peck (Beth Israel Deaconess EM resident in Boston, MA)

(more…)

By Michelle Lin, MD|2016-11-11T18:51:15-08:00Feb 7, 2012|Social Media & Tech|

Paucis Verbis: Fever without a source (29 days-3 months old)

In part 2 of this “Pediatric Fever Without a Source” Paucis Verbis cards, we now cover febrile infants aged 29 days to 3 months (PV card for birth-28 days). Note that there is no single correct answer in how to manage these patients. There can be a wide variation in practices, partly because of the slightly different criteria used by the 3 studies. The overarching principle is that “high risk” infants get admitted with IV ceftriaxone and “low risk” infants get discharged with close follow-up +/- a ceftriaxone IV or IM dose. The line between these two risk categories is the grey area.

Where I practice, we tend to follow a modified version of the Rochester criteria, where a lumbar puncture and antibiotics aren’t always required for this age group (unlike the Boston criteria).

PV Card: Pediatric Fever Without a Source (29 Days-3 Months)

<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>
Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

Keep a lookout for future PV cards which will address fevers without a source in pediatric patients aged 3 months-3 years old.

Thanks to Dr. Hemal Kanzaria (UCSF-SFGH resident) for helping design this PV card and Dr. Christine Cho, Dr. Andi Marmor, and Dr. Ellen Laves (UCSF Pediatrics) for the content.

By Michelle Lin, MD|2021-12-21T13:34:31-08:00Feb 3, 2012|ALiEM Cards, Pediatrics|

Trick of the Trade: Difficult intubation — making lemonade out of lemons

In many cases of massive GI bleeding, airway control is essential. During endotracheal intubation, suction sometimes just isn’t adequate enough to allow to get a good view of the vocal cords. The pool of blood keeps re-accumulating faster than you can suction. You think you see an arytenoid, pointing you in the direction of the trachea, and so you slide the endotracheal tube in.