Discussing Annals EM article: Social Media and Physician Learning

I was delighted to see the News and Perspectives piece in this month’s Annals of Emergency Medicine about “Social Media and Physician Learning” (free PDF). I had totally forgotten that Jan Greene, the author, had called to talk with me several months ago. In the piece, she discusses many of the issues with which I struggle:

Is peer review good or bad?
What is the role of blog and podcast sites in the future of medical education?
With the ease of how anyone can be “published” on blogs, how can one decide on the trustworthiness of open educational resources such as FOAM?
Can or should social media education practices be held up to the rigorous scientific standards of original research?

Here are some noteworthy quotes:

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2019-01-28T21:52:47-08:00Nov 5, 2013|Expert Peer Reviewed (Clinical), Medical Education, Social Media & Tech|

5 Tips in Managing Acute Salicylate Poisoning

Salicylate is among the top 25 substances that cause the greatest number of overdose fatalities in the United States. ¹ Patients can present with a wide variety of complaints including tinnitus, dyspnea, vomiting, confusion, and coma. Significant toxicity occurs when a large amount of salicylate saturates the body’s protein-binding capacity and leaves free salicylate in the serum. ² The American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) recently published a guidance document on management priorities in salicylate toxicity, and it’s definitely worth a read. ³ While not an official clinical guideline, it highlights some important concepts to consider when working up and treating patients after a significant salicylate exposure, and we’ll review five major concepts here and hopefully answer some questions that may cross your mind on shift.

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By Kristin Fontes, MD|2026-06-16T16:04:20-07:00Nov 4, 2013|Expert Peer Reviewed (Clinical), Tox & Medications|

Putting an Older Patient Under: Tips for Geriatric Procedural Sedation

An 84-year old woman presents to your ED with a traumatic, left-sided posterior hip dislocation. You need to reduce the hip. But how should you sedate her? Procedural sedation is an important component of ED care. It allows us to more comfortably perform otherwise painful procedures such as fracture or dislocation reductions, endoscopies, large laceration repairs, and I&Ds. How safe is procedural sedation in older adults?

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By Christina Shenvi, MD, PhD, MBA|2017-03-05T14:18:37-08:00Oct 31, 2013|Expert Peer Reviewed (Clinical), Geriatrics, Tox & Medications|

CPR: Hands-on or Hands-off Defibrillation?

Pauses in chest compressions are known to be detrimental to survival in cardiac arrest, so much so that the 2010 American Heart Association (AHA) emphasize high-quality compressions while minimizing interruptions. There have been some studies that now advocate for continuous chest compressions during a defibrillation shock. There have been substantial changes to external defibrillation technology including:

Biphasic shocks with real-time impedance monitoring to reduce peak voltages
Paddles being replaced by adhesive pre-gelled electrodes
Enhancement in ECG filtering permitting rhythm monitoring during chest compressions.

So the mantra of “hard and fast” may be true when it comes to CPR, but the real question now becomes, should we be continuing CPR during defibrillation?

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By Salim Rezaie, MD|2019-09-10T13:35:23-07:00Oct 28, 2013|Cardiovascular, Critical Care/ Resus, Expert Peer Reviewed (Clinical)|

Treating Ischemic Stroke with tPA in the ED: Time is Brain

Ischemic stroke is an emergent and devastating neurologic disorder, and is a leading cause of both death and disability in the United States. With each minute of brain ischemia, two million neurons are irreversibly damaged. Total ischemic time is linked to functional outcome, and therefore, the role of the Emergency Department is paramount in the management of these patients. Fibrinolytic therapy has become a mainstay of therapy for acute stroke, but guidelines for the use of tPA are dynamic, and often even controversial. When you identify someone with symptoms of stroke, what is your approach to determining if a patient should receive tPA?

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By Todd A. Seigel, MD|2016-11-11T19:04:15-08:00Oct 10, 2013|Critical Care/ Resus, Expert Peer Reviewed (Clinical), Neurology|

Diagnosing hyperthyroidism: Answers to 7 common questions

The prevalence of hyperthyroidism in the general population is about 1-2%, and is ten times more likely in women than men. The spectrum of hyperthyroidism ranges from asymptomatic or subclinical disease to thyroid storm. So how do we diagnose various presentations of hyperthyroidism in the Emergency Department? Below are answers to 7 common questions that commonly arise.
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By Terrance Lee, MD|2016-11-11T19:03:57-08:00Oct 7, 2013|Endocrine-Metabolic, Expert Peer Reviewed (Clinical)|

September 2013 Update: Expert Peer Reviewed posts

It’s been a month since we started adding expert peer reviews to our blog posts, and we have had a flurry of engaging conversation surrounding the new process. During this time we have worked to develop a sustainable peer review process. In fact there are two ongoing expert peer-review processes:

Clinical articles: There have been 10 clinical articles thus far expert peer reviewed on a post-publication basis. See list below.
MEdIC series: Dr. Teresa Chan and Dr. Brent Thoma host this monthly series on challenging educational cases with initial posited questions, followed by a summary review which includes expert input (added on a pre-publication basis) one week later.

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By Natalie Desouza, MD|2017-01-20T12:30:39-08:00Oct 2, 2013|Expert Peer Reviewed (Clinical)|