Should the Trainee be Trusted? A User’s Guide to Assessment with EPAs

You are an attending working with a fourth-year medical student on their emergency medicine clerkship. The student sees a patient with the chief complaint of dizziness. After an initial assessment, the student says that there are no red flags in the history and the patient has a normal neurological exam. In the back of your mind you are thinking, “Does this student know the risk factors, comorbidities, and red flags? Was a thorough neurological exam performed?” How do you know the trainee should be trusted?

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By Danielle Miller MD|2026-06-16T16:15:08-07:00Jan 24, 2020|Academic, Medical Education|

Introducing the 2020-2021 ALiEM Faculty Incubator Cohort!

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We put the call out, and *wow* did the MedEd community respond! We were beyond excited this year about the quality of our applicants for the 2020-2021 ALiEM Faculty Incubator.

This next cohort will include educators from across the globe and from all arenas of medicine including pre-clinical educators and our first nurse practitioner!

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By Mark Ramzy, DO, EMT-P|2026-06-16T16:15:06-07:00Jan 17, 2020|Incubators, Medical Education|

Peer Accountability: A Strategy for Maintaining Commitment to Personal and Professional Obligations

There are a number of personal attributes characterizing the professional identity of “physician.” We are dedicated to patients, committed to lifelong learning, and responsible for a variety of other professional obligations. Each requires physicians to be highly accountable – obligated or willing to accept responsibility for one’s actions. In this post we present examples of how we’ve adopted peer accountability as a strategy to help us with the myriad responsibilities and obligations at the heart of our profession. Just in time for the New Year – we challenge each of our readers to consider finding an “accountability partner” in 2020!

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By Derek Monette, MD|2020-01-06T18:09:21-08:00Jan 10, 2020|Professional Development, Wellness|

Teaming Tips 10: Resuscitate Your Meetings | ALiEM Faculty Incubator

Many of you are asked to take a leadership role in leading a team, whether it’s for research, administration, or even clinical. It is easy to feel unprepared for these roles, and there are many pitfalls waiting to sabotage your team’s productivity. The ALiEM Faculty Incubator has created a series of 10 case-based teaming problems to provide you with evidence-based advice and solutions for tackling some of the more common problems encountered in our professional team experiences.

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By Amanda Young, MD|2019-12-27T16:16:06-08:00Dec 27, 2019|Incubators, Medical Education, Professional Development|

TLDR Book Review: The Culture Code – The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups

Have you had shifts or worked on committees where everything went smoothly? Closed loop communication happened, there was mutual respect among all the team members, and each individual felt empowered to give input even if it differed from what had already been said or done? You’ve probably also worked on shifts, in meetings, or participated in projects where it seemed like the team was falling apart, communicating on different wavelengths, and failing to have a shared understanding. You may feel like a great leader one day and a failure the next. The difference, according to The Culture Code, has everything to do with the culture of the team. In this 2018 book, Daniel Coyle explains what makes teams successful and how you can help create the culture necessary for all of your teams, committees, and groups to succeed.

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By Christina Shenvi, MD, PhD, MBA|2020-01-03T00:12:10-08:00Dec 20, 2019|Book Club, TLDR|

IDEA Series: Just-in-Time Training for Diagnostic Paracentesis

According to the National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey, approximately 630,000 adults in the United States have cirrhosis of the liver, 69% of which are reportedly unaware of having liver disease. A diagnostic paracentesis is a simple procedure for identifying spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in cirrhotic patients with ascites. A just-in-time training (JITT) model incorporating low-fidelity equipment readily available in the ED can facilitate procedural teaching of the diagnostic paracentesis.

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By Al'ai Alvarez, MD|2019-12-21T13:00:22-08:00Dec 18, 2019|Academic, Gastrointestinal, IDEA series|

EM Match Advice: Deep Dive into the SLOE

A high-stakes component in a medical student’s application for an emergency medicine (EM) residency is the Standard Letter of Evaluation, or SLOE. This is a standardized templated letter, written by an group (e.g. department) or faculty from an EM-residency program. This episode of EM Match Advice gives a behind-the-scenes peek into what letter writers are thinking and a deeper dive into the mechanics of the SLOE.

Panelists

Dr. Abra Fant (Northwestern University)
Dr. David Gordon (Duke University)
Dr. Michael Takacs (University of Iowa)

Listen to all the episodes of the EM Match Advice Series

Resources

FAQ on SLOE for medical students (CORD website)

References

Boysen-Osborn M, Andrusaitis J, Clark C, et al. A Retrospective Cohort Study of the Effect of Home Institution on Emergency Medicine Standardized Letters of Evaluation. AEM Educ Train. 2019;3(4):340-346. doi:10.1002/aet2.10374
Love J, Ronan-Bentle S, Lane D, Hegarty C. The Standardized Letter of Evaluation for Postgraduate Training: A Concept Whose Time Has Come? Acad Med. 2016;91(11):1480-1482. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000001352
Beskind D, Hiller K, Stolz U, et al. Does the experience of the writer affect the evaluative components on the standardized letter of recommendation in emergency medicine? J Emerg Med. 2014;46(4):544-550. doi:10.1016/j.jemermed.2013.08.025
Jackson J, Bond M, Love J, Hegarty C. Emergency Medicine Standardized Letter of Evaluation (SLOE): Findings From the New Electronic SLOE Format. J Grad Med Educ. 2019;11(2):182-186. doi:10.4300/JGME-D-18-00344.1
Li S, Fant A, McCarthy D, Miller D, Craig J, Kontrick A. Gender Differences in Language of Standardized Letter of Evaluation Narratives for Emergency Medicine Residency Applicants. AEM Educ Train. 2017;1(4):334-339. doi:10.1002/aet2.10057
Pelletier-Bui A, Van M, Pasirstein M, Jones C, Rimple D. Relationship Between Institutional Standardized Letter of Evaluation Global Assessment Ranking Practices, Interviewing Practices, and Medical Student Outcomes. AEM Educ Train. 2018;2(2):73-76. doi:10.1002/aet2.10079
Hopson L, Regan L, Bond M, et al. The AAMC Standardized Video Interview and the Electronic Standardized Letter of Evaluation in Emergency Medicine: A Comparison of Performance Characteristics. Acad Med. 2019;94(10):1513-1521. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000002889
Miller D, McCarthy D, Fant A, Li-Sauerwine S, Ali A, Kontrick A. The Standardized Letter of Evaluation Narrative: Differences in Language Use by Gender. West J Emerg Med. 2019;20(6):948-956. doi:10.5811/westjem.2019.9.44307

By Michelle Lin, MD|2026-06-16T16:14:59-07:00Dec 6, 2019|EM Match Advice, Podcasts|