IDEA Series: Toxicology Virtual Escape Room during COVID-19

In order to enhance emergency medicine (EM) residents’ knowledge of toxicology core content, we previously created an immersive escape room experience complete with team-based puzzle solving in a geographical maze to find an antidote. The subsequent COVID-19 pandemic and physical distancing guidelines resulted in canceled in-person EM conferences, thereby requiring a rapid adaptation to virtual formats [1-4]. Our toxicology division sought a novel method of engaging learners with toxicology core content remotely.

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By Alexis Cates, DO|2020-09-18T00:30:34-07:00Jul 15, 2020|IDEA series, Medical Education, Tox & Medications|

Little Big Med Podcast: Gender Equity in Medicine

It’s time to talk about gender equity in medicine. Significant gender disparities exist in both healthcare institutions and professional societies. These disparities persist even in fields that are predominantly female, such as pediatrics. In fact, although women comprise 72.3% of active pediatricians, only 27.5% of pediatric department chairs across US medical schools are women. Why does this disparity exist? What can we do to address it? In this episode of the Little Big Med podcast, host Dr. Jason Woods discusses these questions with Dr. Nancy Spector, Professor of Pediatrics at Drexel University College of Medicine and Executive Director of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program.

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By Kellen Vu|2020-07-10T12:23:22-07:00Jul 10, 2020|Pediatrics, Podcasts, Professional Development, Social Media & Tech|

IDEA Series: Homemade Escharotomy Kit

Although escharotomy is rarely performed by emergency physicians during the initial management of burns, it is a life and limb-sparing skill important to know as a trainee and provider in emergency medicine [1,2]. There are few models made to accommodate procedural training, and the ones available are often cost-prohibitive. It is critical to have a method for learning and practicing this important procedure [3,4].

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By Davin Barnett, DO|2020-07-03T15:50:13-07:00Jul 6, 2020|IDEA series, Trauma|

Introducing: GroundED in EM a 4 week asynchronous curriculum for 3rd year students

A group of educators from our ALiEM Faculty Incubator 2020 class has created a 4-week virtual introduction to Emergency Medicine curriculum for 3rd-year medical students called Grounded in EM!

Think back, back to March 2020: you were a medical student, happily rotating through core specialties, considering Emergency Medicine, and then WHAM! The coronavirus pandemic pulled the rug out of your regularly scheduled 3rd year. Or, you were a program looking forward to a “business as usual” approach to your 3rd-year EM clerkship. Now, you’ll have limited face to face time, and are wondering “How do we provide the same general em content?”

Are you still considering emergency medicine? Are you worried that your fragmented clinical experience is leaving you unprepared for your rotations in an Emergency Department near you? Are you a program looking for an answer to provide a great EM learning experience? This is the curriculum for you!

Target Audience: Third-year medical students who haven’t committed to Emergency Medicine, but are interested in being introduced to the field AND programs looking to have a comprehensive and ready-made EM related content for MS3’s rotating this academic year.

What: A 4-week completely asynchronous and virtual curriculum containing FOAM resources, including blog posts, podcasts, webpages, and interactive modules, based on the ACGME core competencies. Each module includes a short quiz to test immediate knowledge retention, and the end of the week choose your own adventure case.

Where: Hosted on ALiEM.com

When: Curriculum release on July 1st

Benefits: Walk into your EM rotations feeling confident that you will know how to approach the undifferentiated patient, make a differential, talk to people about it, and write it down, in a compassionate and patient-centered way! Programs can have their students do this curriculum in parallel with their clinical shifts during their 4-week rotation.

Over four weeks, we will cover:

How to approach undifferentiated and acutely ill adult and pediatric patients (Patient Care and Clinical Reasoning)
An introduction to the flow and system of the Emergency Department (System Based Practice)
Communication strategies in Emergency Medicine, both with written and verbal and with EM physicians, consultants, and patients (Interpersonal and Communication Skills)
Professionalism, medical ethics, and patient-centered issues that arise in the Emergency Department (Professionalism)
Creating a differential diagnosis for both common and life-threatening patient presentations (Medical Knowledge)
Exposure to key Emergency Medicine content areas such as resuscitation, evaluation, diagnostics interpretation, and management of common ED presentations (Medical Knowledge, Practice-Based Learning and Improvement)
Development of procedural skills, including suturing, vascular access, as well as EM tricks of the trade. (Medical Knowledge, Practice-Based Learning and Improvement)

We can’t wait to have you join us on GroundED In EM!

By Guy Carmelli, MD|2020-06-30T14:48:03-07:00Jul 4, 2020|Academic, Medical Student|

Banishing Busy: Part 2

Medical professionals are busy people and exist in a constant state of “being busy.” How do we resolve chronic “busy-ness”? How do we manage our time effectively? In her recent talk at the CORD Academic Assembly 2020, Dr. Christina Shenvi, EM Physician and Associate Residency Director at UNC, provided 5 key actions to help us be productive, complete our work effectively, and strive for work-life balance. Dr. Shenvi recorded her lecture again to be shared with the ALiEM Faculty Incubator. This series of posts breaks down her talk into 3 sections in order to summarize her key points and to help us “Banish Busy” from our lives. This second post will discuss seven ways to avoid self-sabotage.

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By Brian Barbas, MD|2020-08-25T18:03:30-07:00Jul 3, 2020|Life, Professional Development|

IDEA Series: An asynchronous EMS curriculum implemented during COVID-19

The novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) resulted in the cancellation of educational experiences for emergency medicine (EM) residents at many institutions, including emergency medical services (EMS) ambulance ride alongs. The Accreditation for the Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires that residents have educational experiences related to EMS, emergency preparedness, and disaster medicine. EMS experiences must include ground unit runs, direct medical oversight, and participation in multi-casualty incident drills [1]. There are few dedicated EMS curricula published in the literature, and those in existence incorporate physical ride-alongs [2].

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By Megan Stobart-Gallagher, DO|2020-06-29T14:48:13-07:00Jul 1, 2020|COVID19, EMS, IDEA series, Medical Education|

Banishing Busy: Part 1

Medical professionals are busy people and exist in a constant state of “being busy.” How do we resolve chronic “busy-ness”? How do we manage our time effectively? In her recent talk at the CORD Academic Assembly 2020, Dr. Christina Shenvi, EM Physician and Associate Residency Director at UNC, provided 5 key actions to help us be productive, complete our work effectively, and strive for work-life balance. Dr. Shenvi recorded her lecture again to be shared with the ALiEM Faculty Incubator. This series of posts breaks down her talk into 3 sections in order to summarize her key points and to help us “Banish Busy” from our lives. This first post will address the importance of value-based scheduling and how to avoid self-sabotage.

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By Brian Barbas, MD|2020-08-25T18:02:15-07:00Jun 26, 2020|Life, Professional Development|