Retrieval Practice: 10 benefits of testing

Tests terrify people, especially when used for summative assessment. But in reality, tests have also helped students learn the material. Retrieval practice, also known as test enhanced learning or the testing effect, has been demonstrated to have more benefits than re-studying the material or multiple choice tests. As per Henry L. Roediger et al.

If students are quizzed frequently, they tend to study more and with more regularity. Quizzes also permit students to discover gaps in their knowledge and focus study efforts on difficult material; furthermore, when students study after taking a test, they learn more from the study episode than if they had not taken the test…

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By Javier Benitez, MD|2019-02-19T18:08:43-08:00Aug 19, 2013|Medical Education|

Crisis Resource Management

CRM and SBT… just another set of acronyms in the world of medical education? Don’t we already have enough??

Not quite! Rather, Crisis Resource Management (CRM) is a complementary approach to Simulation Based Training (SBT). It can enhance current ongoing medical simulations or provide foundation for a vigorous curriculum when launching new simulation programs.

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By Nikita Joshi, MD|2016-11-11T19:02:50-08:00Aug 16, 2013|Medical Education, Simulation|

Hero spotlight: Dr.Todd Raine

There are incredible people doing incredibly inspiring work in Emergency Medicine. I wanted to restart the hero series, which had fallen off the radar a few years ago, featuring amazing people in our specialty. Today’s hero spotlight is on Dr. Todd Raine (@RaineDoc). He is a Staff Physician and IT Coordinator at the Providence Healthcare Department of EM and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia’s Department of EM. Despite these notable accomplishments, he is famous in the social media world for his innovative creation of a Google-based EM search engine GoogleFOAM.com, which many of us use to perform social media site searches online in the field of EM. His search engine is a “unified search of all FOAM sources on the Web.”

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2026-06-16T16:03:59-07:00Aug 15, 2013|Medical Education, Social Media & Tech|

Introducing #EMConf Twitter Hashtag

I would like to share with the national and global community an opportunity to participate in the weekly generation of learning pearls from Emergency Medicine residency conferences. The majority of U.S. EM residencies gather faculty and residents together on a weekly basis for a half-day of education on material covering the basics of EM education. This is happening in isolated silos at the individual learning institutions. And up until now it was difficult to share the wealth of knowledge gained outside of the learning institutions in real-time.

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By Nikita Joshi, MD|2016-11-11T19:02:49-08:00Aug 12, 2013|Medical Education, Social Media & Tech|

ALiEM Bookclub: The Checklist Manifesto

Introduction

Checklists have now almost become status quo in current medicine. My earliest encounter with the surgical checklist phenomenon was during PGY1 as an off-service intern. At this point, early adopters were running around with “Checkmark” safety-pins on their surgical caps, trying to encourage everyone to take up the cause. There were jokes and exasperated sighs each time a case started, but most complied with the task at the behest of opinion leaders (often the senior OR nurses in the room). Two years later I returned to see a culture change. OR teams seemed to communicate better, things seemed to flow.

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By Teresa Chan, MD, MHPE|2026-06-16T16:03:53-07:00Aug 9, 2013|Book Club, Medical Education|

NPR Ted Talks: A non-medical podcast ready to inspire

Most of us have heard of TED talks and most of us have heard of NPR. But did you know that the two have paired together to give a fascinating weekly radio discussion? Since March 2013, NPR reporter and radio host Guy Raz (@NPRGuyRaz) has brought together innovators, leaders, and entrepreneurs among others to the radio format to inspire and enlighten the listener. This amazing free resource is a valuable non-medical podcast for doctors to access.

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By Nikita Joshi, MD|2026-06-16T16:03:51-07:00Jul 26, 2013|Medical Education, Social Media & Tech|

Mass Casualty Anticipation – An essential, instinctual skill of EM physicians

Emergency medicine is full of surprises, twists, and turns. We don’t know what type of patient we will encounter prior to a shift, but we are ready for any and all. That being said, preparation is essential prior to the arrival of critical patients. This is why the airway cart is checked before starting a shift or the position of the bedside ultrasound machine is always mentally tracked in order to quickly grab if needed.

Unfortunately, individual preparation is not sufficient for large scale disasters. This level of preparation must happen on a hospital and interdepartmental level such as coordination between trauma surgery, orthopedics, and emergency medicine with agreed upon policies.

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By Nikita Joshi, MD|2016-11-11T19:02:31-08:00Jul 12, 2013|Medical Education, Trauma|