Diagnose on Sight: Fifth Metatarsal Fractures
Case: A 24 year old male presents with foot pain after a fall down a set of stairs. He reports pain and swelling over the lateral surface of his foot and he has not ambulated due to the pain. Based on the X-ray, what is the diagnosis? [+]
NEXUS Chest CT Decision Instruments in Blunt Trauma
One of the five 2014 American College of Surgeons’ Choosing Wisely recommendations is to avoid routing whole-body CT imaging of trauma patents, also known as the ‘pan-CT’. Until now, no validated decision instrument existed to help guide clinicians decide whether to obtain a chest CT in the setting of blunt trauma. This month, Dr. Robert Rodriguez and the multi-institutional NEXUS Chest CT research team published a paper describing the derivation and validation of 2 decision instruments in PLOS Medicine [1]. [+]
AIR Series: Cardiology – CHF, PVD, and Others (part 2)
As mentioned last module, the FOAMsphere contains a phenomenal amount of cardiology content. Accordingly, the CORD testing schedule and our cardiology module has been divided into two parts. Below we have listed our selection of the 12 highest quality blog posts within the past 12 months (as of August 2015) related to acute coronary syndromes, curated and approved for residency training by the AIR Series Board. In this module we have 6 AIRs and 6 Honorable Mentions. We strive for comprehensiveness by selecting from a broad spectrum of blogs from the top 50 listing per the Social Media Index. [+]
ALiEM Bookclub | Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic
They started at once, and went about among the Lotus-eaters, who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back and say what had happened to them, but were for staying and munching lotus with the Lotus-eaters without thinking further of their return. — Odyssey IX, translated by Samuel Butler [+]
Your Patient In Extremis: THAM To The Rescue?
One of the final common denominators dictating the success or failure of any resuscitative effort, be it a trauma or medical code, is the patient’s acid-base status. In the presence of acidosis, many of the tools at your disposal, including vasopressors, become impotent and the patient’s ability to strike a balance between bleeding and clotting or mounting an appropriate inflammatory response become deranged.1–6 So what are the options to tilt the acid-base status in our favor? [+]
Child Whisperer Series: Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
“Can you help me? I have a patient who is what I like to call, a kid at heart,” asked one of our ED adult nurses. As we walked to the adult side of the ED the nurse let me know that this patient had intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The adult patient required IV access and had already been poked a few times. Although I do not often work with adults, I knew that remembering a few key Child Life principles could help us care for the patient. [+]
ALiEMU CAPSULES Module 3: Pharmacology of Emergency Airway Management – Part 1
We are thrilled to announce the next installment of ALiEM CAPSULES: Pharmacology of Emergency Airway Management (part 1), which was just published to the ALiEMU site. This is the first part of a 2-part course focusing on the pharmacology of the emergency airway. For this CAPSULES module we are introducing a multimedia-enhanced learning experience. You will find HD videos throughout the module providing further educational content. Some of the quizzes are also accompanied by video cases followed by a question based on the case you just watched. If you cannot use audio on your device, no problem, all videos are closed captioned (just [+]
AIR-Pro Series: Cardiovascular (2015)
Below we have listed our selection of the 8 highest quality blog posts related to 3 advanced level questions on cardiovascular topics posed, curated, and approved for residency training by the AIR-Pro Series Board. The blogs relate to the following questions: Advanced concepts about Sgarbossa’s Criteria Troubleshooting pacemaker’s and automated implantable cardioverter defibrillators (AICD’s) Troubleshooting left ventricular assist devices (LVAD’s) In this module, we have 5 AIR-Pro’s and 3 Honorable Mentions. To strive for comprehensiveness, we selected from a broad spectrum of blogs identified through FOAMSearch.net. [+]
New Advanced “AIR Professional” Series: AIR-Pro
We are excited to introduce an offshoot of the AIR series (Approved Instructional Resources) called the AIR Professional series! The AIR-Pro series was conceived to answer more advanced level concepts, while continuing to follow the AIR series model of providing a credible method to identify quality blogs and podcasts. Similar to the AIR Series, we hope to provide U.S. Emergency Medicine residents an additional resource for Individualized Interactive Instruction (III) conference credit. [+]
Hip Fractures in Older Adults: An Important Source of Morbidity
Hip fractures are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in older adults. The average age for hip fractures in the U.S. is 80 years, and a staggering 20% of women and 10% of men 1 will experience a hip fracture in their lifetime if they live to older age. This makes it a costly injury, racking up close to $15 billion per year in the U.S. alone. 2 Some hip fractures are obvious as soon as the patient rolls through the ambulance bay. Others can be subtle and require more than just a plain X-ray. This post will discuss [+]
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