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|

ALiEM Book Club: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Just like scores of other premedical students all striving to get acceptance to medical school, I volunteered and did research during college. I elected to work in the Virology department because I wanted to study viruses like HIV, RSV, and SARS that were causing havoc on our society. I do recall that we used HeLa cells frequently in our research. In fact, most scientists in that department used HeLa cells on a regular basis regardless of the focus of their projects. I didn’t think much of the cells and I definitely never thought of where or from whom those cells may have come from. They were simply a day to day part of my research, just like assays used for western blots. It wasn’t until I learned of the publication of the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks [Amazon link], that I came to learn about the incredible back story of these amazing HeLa cells. I believe that this book has valuable lessons to teach us clinicians about our patients, how we relate to our patients, and the significant roles we inadvertently play in their lives.

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By Nikita Joshi, MD|2016-11-11T19:02:21-08:00Jun 28, 2013|Book Club, Medical Education|

Launching the ALiEM Book Club

Everyone involved in medicine has read a significant amount of books over their lifetime. Some of those books were read willingly, whereas others not so willingly (sorry, Histology textbook). Regardless, most of us have an inner love of reading and continue to do so even when we are not forced to do so for a test or class.

We are launching “The ALiEM Book Club”!

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By Nikita Joshi, MD|2019-02-19T18:55:48-08:00Jun 28, 2013|Book Club, Medical Education|

Reflections on CMS Simulation Instructor Course

I just completed the 4 day intensive Center for Medical Simulation Institute for Medical Simulation Instructor Course. The title of the course is a mouthful and just as intense and high yield as the actual course was itself. The chief purpose of the course is to develop debriefing skills as a medical instructor. The structure and nature of the course seemed so effortless and fluid, and yet at the end of the 4 days, I knew that the debriefing skills I had learned were ingrained into my brain. I highly recommend this course to any medical educator with simulation interest. In this post, I want to share with you a few of the highlights and encourage everyone to learn more. (more…)

By Nikita Joshi, MD|2016-11-17T08:48:10-08:00Jun 22, 2013|Medical Education, Simulation|

Navigating the waters of medical education and social media

SUNY Downstate Department of Emergency Medicine held a lecture series May 22, 2013 as a primer for the EM residents on how to use social media to enhance medical education. This session was designed to be an introduction for the novice on how to get the most out of FOAM (Free Open Access Meducation), Twitter, and Blogging with a section on professionalism. Invited speakers included Drs. David Marcus, Jeremy Faust, Jordana Haber, and myself Nikita Joshi. The slides from the session are presented below. Enjoy!

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By Nikita Joshi, MD|2016-10-26T17:04:57-07:00Jun 21, 2013|Medical Education, Social Media & Tech|

Pitfalls to avoid in collecting patient related teaching materials

Educators are eager to gather valuable learning tools such as EKGs and x-rays to be used in teaching for our learners, whether from our home institutions or internationally through the internet. However, this may not always be seen as altruistic; history and even modern day medicine is full of examples of misguided attempts to further medicine at the expense of patients such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment from 1932-1972.

The focus of this post is how to go about collecting patient data for teaching purposes and avoiding confidentiality and consent violations while always remaining respectful of the patient and their rights.

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By Nikita Joshi, MD|2016-11-11T19:02:21-08:00Jun 21, 2013|Medical Education, Social Media & Tech|

Should physicians be trained as “knowledge workers”?

According to Wikipedia a Knowledge Worker is someone whose main job is to employ creative, divergent, convergent thinking to solve problems with the help of searching new information. In the 21st century these Knowledge Workers may use Internet tools, such as social media, to form a collaborative network of expertise. These networks might be open or not. There are plenty of companies using knowledge management in order to optimize their performance.

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By Javier Benitez, MD|2016-11-11T18:37:08-08:00Jun 19, 2013|Medical Education, Social Media & Tech|