Do you belong to a listserv? My favorites

An email mailing list (or listserv) is a great way to communicate with a large group of people. Once you subscribe to a mailing list, an email sent to a single, common email address will be distributed to everyone who is subscribed to the list. You can find lists for nearly everything and anything!

There are a multitude of lists for various medical specialties. These lists unite people from all over the country (and world) from various practice backgrounds such as academic/community medical centers to rural hospitals/clinics. We are all connected by the power of the internet. The lists are a great way to generate discussion on clinical cases, the newest literature and the experiences of the list’s members.

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By Fred Wu, MHS, PA-C|2016-12-08T10:15:08-08:00Sep 14, 2010|Medical Education|

New favorite blog: Wishful thinking in medical education

Wishful Thinking in Medical Education

I recently came upon this great blog by Dr. Anne Marie Cunningham, a general practitioner and Clinical Lecturer at Wales, UK. She has some really insightful posts about education, its future, and the use of new technologies. This blog has been in existence since 2008. Just as interesting are the tons of comments that she gets from a spectrum of readers. Check it out!

She is also extremely active on Twitter with over 2,000 followers (@amcunningham).

By Michelle Lin, MD|2016-11-11T18:41:00-08:00Sep 7, 2010|Medical Education, Social Media & Tech|

Article Review: Student documentation in the chart

Do you have medical students rotating in your Emergency Department? Are they allowed to document in the medical record?

Charting in the medical record is the cornerstone of clinical communication. You document your findings, your clinical reasoning, and management plan. The medical record allows communication amongst providers. Chart documentation is a crucial skill that every medical student should know, as stated by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2016-11-11T19:00:30-08:00Sep 6, 2010|Education Articles, Medical Education|

Getting a subpoena: What is an expert witness?

Well, it’s an inevitable part of working in an Emergency Department. I got a subpoena recently and now have to go in to testify on a trauma patient. I’ve gotten a few subpoenas before on trauma patients, but fortunately most cases were settled out of court.

First of all, I think it’s an ethical responsibility of emergency physicians to describe what we saw and did in the care of the injured patient in the legal system. However, I have found that the few lawyers I have interacted with slowly expand their scope of questions to cover things NOT in the medical chart. Has this happened to anyone else? They essentially start to ask me things which an “expert witness” should answer. Expert witnesses receive expert witness fees. (more…)

By Michelle Lin, MD|2019-02-19T18:53:03-08:00Aug 31, 2010|Medical Education|

Article Review: Rethinking the premed requirements

Think back to your college years. Remember those premed courses that you had to take? Biology, chemistry, physics… oh my. How helpful were these in your preparation for medical school and clinical practice?

In 1981, the Association of American Medical Colleges assembled a group, the General Professional Education of the Physician and College Preparation for Medicine (GPEP) to relook at these premed requirements. In 1984, the published a report “Physicians for the Twenty-First Century”. They advocated that the intensive premed requirements overly skews students’ education towards a “narrow objective of medical school admission”. Education is not balanced to include broader liberal arts learning, which may teach students more about humanistic values and communication skills.

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2016-11-11T19:00:31-08:00Aug 30, 2010|Education Articles, Medical Education|

Trick of the Trade: Increasing students responses to the differential diagnosis

Anyone who teaches medicine asks students to list their differential diagnosis when discussing a new clinical case. It’s also part of several models for education including the One-Minute Preceptor and SNAPPS.

For the most part, students are good at coming up with answers to the differential, but what do you do when they strike out? Or what if the answer is always the same, i.e. chest pain = myocardial infarction?

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By Robert Cooney, MD MSMedEd|2016-11-20T11:17:15-08:00Aug 25, 2010|Medical Education, Tricks of the Trade|

Article Review: Use of Effective Questioning

Asking effective questions is a valuable skill for any teacher. As a junior faculty member working to improve my teaching, I’m often in awe of my more experienced colleagues when I have the chance to watch them teach. At times, it’s quite easy to pick out the skills that they put into action but occasionally, their expertise is much more subtle.

Effective questioning falls into this category.

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By Robert Cooney, MD MSMedEd|2016-11-18T10:05:48-08:00Aug 23, 2010|Education Articles, Medical Education|