IDEA series: The Bleeding Arm Tourniquet Simulation
Education in emergency response to trauma is a global health priority [1]. Mortality rates are nearly twice as high in patients with trauma in low-income as compared to high-income countries [2]. With uncontrolled bleeding as the number one cause of death from trauma, tourniquet application has been the focus of training programs, like the “Stop the Bleed” campaign in the United States [3]. Although understanding how to apply a tourniquet is a life-saving intervention, use of a windlass tourniquet may not be intuitive [4]. The windlass tourniquet in its simplest form is the “stick-and-rope.” Winding the stick in the tourniquet [+]
A Tale of Two Epidemics: COVID-19 and the Opioid Crisis
The United States is currently dealing with 2 deadly, concurrent epidemics: COVID-19 and the opioid crisis. Both need viable solutions. The better we are equipped to address one, the more effective we can be at treating the other. Counterintuitively, now is actually the best time to get waivered. It’s imperative that we do so for 3 reasons: [+]
Diagnose on Sight: Scrotal Swelling
Case: A 58-year-old male with no past medical history presents to the emergency department for evaluation of right lower quadrant abdominal pain associated with right scrotal swelling. The patient reports that he had a colonoscopy the day before to remove a 20 mm polyp, which had been seen on an outpatient CT scan. He states that he noticed that his right scrotum appeared slightly swollen immediately away after the procedure, but since then the swelling had increased and he developed mild right lower quadrant abdominal pain. Physical examination reveals mild tenderness to the right lower quadrant and swelling of the [+]
LVAD Part V: The Coding LVAD Patient
Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have moved from being a bridge to a heart transplant to destination therapy for patients with severe heart failure. Although their use in the general public has increased, they still provide a challenge to the emergency medicine (EM) physician. This series aims to cover the basics of how the EM physician approaches the care of these patients. [+]
Gage Stuntz
A Pop in the Calf – Plantaris Rupture
A 32 year-old male presents to the Emergency Department after he felt a “pop” in his posterior-medial calf while playing tennis. He was able to ambulate but had pain with plantar flexion and was unable to continue playing tennis. What is your differential diagnosis? What physical exam maneuver would you perform? What findings would you expect on physical exam? What is the diagnosis based on ultrasound images? What is your management in the emergency department? [+]
LVAD Part IV: Non-Device Pathology
Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have moved from being a bridge to a heart transplant to destination therapy for patients with severe heart failure. Although their use in the general public has increased, they still provide a challenge to the emergency medicine (EM) physician. This series aims to cover the basics of how the EM physician approaches the care of these patients. [+]
Gage Stuntz
I’m an Emergency Medicine Physician With COVID-19, Now What?
A 35-year-old female emergency medicine physician presents for evaluation for severe myalgias, headache, fatigue, mild nasal congestion, profound anosmia, cough, and subjective fevers and chills. She has no measured temperature above 100.4°F, but has been taking anti-inflammatories around the clock. The day previously, she called occupational health and received testing for the novel coronavirus. The next day, her test returns positive. What happens next? We are here to share our personal experiences with COVID-19 and provide some resources to best support yourselves, your families, your learners, and your colleagues throughout this uncertain and ever-changing situation. [+]
Healthcare Providers in the COVID-19 Era: Keeping Clean When Coming Home
Given overcrowded hospitals and limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE), showing up for work can feel like entering a battleground without ammunition for many physicians during the COVID-19 outbreak [1]. Despite this, doctors and nurses show up every day ready to do their jobs. While we have committed to the Hippocratic Oath, our families have not. How can we do our duty while preventing exposure of our loved ones at home [2, 3]? [+]
Trick of the Trade: Identifying Team Members in Protected Code Blues
Your team in the Emergency Department (ED) receives a call from your local Emergency Medical Services (EMS) crew informing you that they are transporting a patient with high suspicion of COVID-19 in severe respiratory distress. As you assemble your team in preparation for a Protected Code Blue (PCB), your staff (including physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, etc.) begins donning full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). PPE includes donning a gown, gloves, face mask, goggles and/or a face shield. With several team members assembled in the resuscitation bay in full PPE, it can be challenging to identify specific individual members of the team [+]
EM Match Advice: COVID-19 and the 2020-21 Residency Application Season
With so much appropriate attention focused on getting frontline emergency providers with personal protective equipment in the COVID-19 era, one major overshadowed storyline is the uncertainty of the 2020-21 interview season for medical students applying into Emergency Medicine (EM). COVID-19 has thrown a wrench in the entire application season not only for medical students, but also medical schools, residency programs, and hospitals. The downstream effects of potentially canceling visiting (away) EM rotations and possibly even home EM rotations in the near term are dizzying. How does one obtain enough letters of recommendation? Should I even apply for visiting EM rotations? [+]
Director of Growth, Strategic Alliance Initiative, Center for Innovation and Digital Health
Massachusetts General Hospital;
Chief Scientific Officer, Conductscience.com
Latest posts by Shuhan He, MD (see all)
- The Discharge Severity Index: Early Research on ED Readmission Risk Assessment - August 14, 2025
- Suboxone and the Emergency Physician: Get Waivered Training - August 12, 2022
- A Tale of Two Epidemics: COVID-19 and the Opioid Crisis - April 23, 2020