About Michelle Lin, MD

ALiEM Founder and CEO
Professor and Digital Innovation Lab Director
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of California, San Francisco

Article review: Service versus education

It’s a busy day in the Emergency Department and there are 5 new patients to be seen. The waiting room is overflowing. As the attending, you are getting barraged with a million questions to answer and problems to fix.

There is also a case of a full-thickness burn patient going to the OR in the next few minutes. She’d be a perfect teaching case for the residents.

Should I have the residents go see the new patients, or should I pull them all aside to show them the physical findings and teach about burns for 5-10 minutes?
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By Michelle Lin, MD|2016-11-11T19:01:45-08:00Jan 4, 2010|Education Articles, Medical Education|

Trick of the Trade: Hip flexion strength testing

Testing lower extremity strength is a crucial part of the examination in patients with low back pain. In Emergency Departments, however, some patients provide a suboptimal effort because of general fatigue or malingering.

How can you differentiate whether asymmetric hip flexion weakness is from suboptimal effort or true weakness?

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2016-11-11T19:01:45-08:00Dec 30, 2009|Tricks of the Trade|

PV Card: CNS Infections

Here is another installment of the Paucis Verbis (In a Few Words) e-card series on the topic of CNS infections from EM Clinics of North America 2009.

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

Reference

Somand D, Meurer W. Central nervous system infections. Emerg Med Clin North Am. 2009;27(1):89-100, ix. [PubMed]

By Michelle Lin, MD|2021-10-19T19:19:54-07:00Dec 29, 2009|ALiEM Cards, Infectious Disease, Neurology|

Article review: Failing at feedback in medical education

Most of the medical education literature on feedback is teacher-focused rather than learner-focused. In other words, focus is paid towards teaching faculty how to give feedback which:

Is non-judgmental
Is non-threatening
Is specific
Consists of both positive and constructive elements
Offers alternatives

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2016-11-11T18:44:24-08:00Dec 28, 2009|Education Articles, Medical Education|

Paucis Verbis Project: A peripheral brain e-card series

A few days I wrote about my “peripheral brain” note cards that I carry with me on each ED shift. These cards contain brief summaries of updated guidelines, evidence based literature, and clinical pearls. I constantly get requests for a copy of them, but they are fairly outdated now that I’m out of residency.

So starting today, I’m going to start periodically posting new note cards in Word and PDF format that can be printed on any 4×6 inch index card. These will be posted every Friday. Feel free to download, edit, change font or font size, and use. You can add/remove cards as you collect them. Comments are definitely welcome.

Paucis Verbis Project

“Paucis verbis” means “in a few words” in Latin. I’ll initially start reviewing new articles from the Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America publication series. This is my favorite review resource in EM. It comes out every 3 months.

My first Paucis Verbis card will be a duo review. The first article is on shock by a super-star friend of mine, Dr. Matt Strehlow (Stanford). The second is first-authored by Dr. Philip Perera (Columbia) on the RUSH Exam and the role of ultrasonography in shock resuscitation.

PV Card: Shock

<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>
Adapted from [1, 2]
Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

References

Perera P, Mailhot T, Riley D, Mandavia D. The RUSH exam: Rapid Ultrasound in SHock in the evaluation of the critically lll. Emerg Med Clin North Am. 2010;28(1):29-56, vii. [PubMed]
Strehlow M. Early identification of shock in critically ill patients. Emerg Med Clin North Am. 2010;28(1):57-66, vii. [PubMed]

By Michelle Lin, MD|2021-10-19T19:22:27-07:00Dec 22, 2009|ALiEM Cards, Cardiovascular|

What’s in your pocket on an ED shift?

I am always curious about what people carry in their scrubs and lab coat pockets. Often you can identify residents based on what they are carrying or wearing. Stereotypically, I find the following:

Long reflex hammer jutting way out of the lab coat pocket – Neurology
Plaster smears on their scrub tops and bottoms – Orthopedics
Fluffy animal on their stethoscope and/or lab coat – Pediatrics
LMP wheel – Obstetrics/Gynecology
Small textbook in lab coat pocket – a medical student

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2019-09-10T14:04:59-07:00Dec 18, 2009|Life|

Trick of the Trade: Laryngoscope lifting strength

You are about to endotracheally intubate a patient. As you struggle to elevate the laryngoscope more anteriorly, has your left hand ever trembled while trying to see the vocal cords? Before you say, “I think the cords are too anterior, hand me the [insert your favorite backup airway adjunct]“, let’s focus on some basics.

How can you gain significantly more laryngoscope lift strength? You can do more left arm bicep/tricep exercises, or…

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2016-11-11T19:01:46-08:00Dec 16, 2009|Tricks of the Trade|

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