Inviting contributors to ALiEM: An open peer-reviewed content submission process

Over the last several years, ALiEM has recruited a team of regular contributors, each with their own individual passions within the entire breadth of Emergency Medicine. ALiEM has provided these individuals with a global platform capable of carrying their message to a target audience of thousands of regular subscribers. Furthermore, the evolution of a rigorous pre-publication Expert Peer Review process has helped ensure that the content is especially polished and scientifically accurate.

Today marks a new day. The overwhelming success of the website and editorial process has led us to what we feel is the next step for this academic blog and online medical education: peer-reviewed community content submission.

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By Derek Sifford|2019-04-05T17:05:42-07:00Aug 22, 2014|Emergency Medicine, Expert Peer Reviewed (Clinical), Pre Publication Critique (Clinical)|

Diagnose on Sight: Palmar Rash

Case: A 41 year old male with one week of non-pruritic palmar rash that started on his trunk and spread to his hands. He has no history of travel, fever, joint pains, or medication use. What is your diagnosis for this palmar rash? Click on the image for a larger view.

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By Jeff Riddell, MD|2026-06-16T16:05:51-07:00Aug 19, 2014|Dermatology, Diagnose on Sight, Infectious Disease|

Trick of the Trade: V-to-Y flap laceration repair for tension wounds

You see a patient with a large V-shaped laceration under tension requiring suture repair. Resist the temptation to simply pull the edges together and close the laceration with simple interrupted or running sutures. Excessive tension on a flap edge during the healing process can compromise its blood supply. This causes ischemia to the healing tissue, which in turn makes that flap edge more likely to dehisce, necrose, and become infected.

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By Brian Lin, MD|2026-06-16T16:05:57-07:00Aug 16, 2014|Trauma, Tricks of the Trade|

The Opioid Prescription Epidemic: Annals of EM Resident Perspectives article

Misuse of prescription opioids is one of the defining health problems of our generation. The dramatic rise of opioid analgesic prescriptions in the US and Canada has been well documented, and opioids represent the most common cause of fatal prescription overdoses. On every shift, in every emergency department in the country, physicians struggle with the concerns of patients presenting with common pain complaints. Seeking to manage their patients’ symptoms in the face of dramatically rising prescription opioid misuse and fatal overdose, emergency physicians are challenged to distinguish those who are simply seeking pain relief, those who are seeking opioid prescriptions due to addiction, and those who fit both categories. Emergency care providers are also charged with balancing the pressures of meeting clinical care and patient satisfaction goals while fulfilling our moral obligation to provide primary and secondary prevention of opioid misuse.

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By Esther Choo, MD MPH|2026-06-16T16:05:40-07:00Aug 11, 2014|Tox & Medications|

Management of Iron Toxicity

Iron toxicity is determined by the amount of elemental iron (Fe) ingested. Examples of Fe formulations and the amount of elemental Fe contained in each formulation are listed in the table below (adapted from ¹).

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By David Manthey, MD|2016-12-19T10:46:00-08:00Aug 6, 2014|Expert Peer Reviewed (Clinical), Pre Publication Critique (Clinical), Tox & Medications|

SimLIFE-EM Challenge: Add to the conversation

Debriefings in medical simulation are meant to be the bow on top of the gift that is medical simulation. It is the ultimate delicious dessert, served after a grueling dinner course. All analogies aside, debriefings are meant to drive home the teaching points, to gain a deeper understanding of medical resuscitation as a group, and create mental frameworks of the approach to various patients. But this is often easier described than actually done. We here at ALiEM paired with Dr. Henry Curtis to come up with a creative way of developing debriefing skills and gain deeper understanding of mental frameworks.

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By Nikita Joshi, MD|2016-11-07T12:40:10-08:00Aug 4, 2014|Medical Education, Simulation, Tox & Medications|

Child Whisperer Series: After the Pediatric Code Blue

“We need to debrief” said the nurse manager after the medical team walked out of the critical care room after pronouncing a child who died after a traumatic accident. The social worker pointed at me (I am a Child Life Specialist) and looked at her and said “It’s our code blue now. We have to wait. We have a job to do”. Which was her way of saying we still had a lot of work to do with the family. At that point I walked in a room with the social worker and devastated parents, where the patient’s brother waited. He looked at me with big eyes and wanted to know if his sibling was ok. Not a conversation I would wish upon my worst enemy.

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By Kristen Beckler, CTRS, CCLS|2016-11-11T17:13:19-08:00Jul 24, 2014|Pediatrics|