Top 20 ALiEM Clinical Posts in 2015
Seasons greetings from the ALiEM team. We have been publishing so many posts this year that you may have missed a few. Did you catch at least the top 20 most-read ALiEM clinical posts, which were published in 2015? Check them out. [+]
Child Whisperer Series: Making the Most of the Holidays in the ED
“Ugh I have to work Christmas Eve and Christmas day.” “I hate not being with my family for the holidays.” “Hanukkah won’t be the same this year if I can’t be with my Dad.” “New Year’s Eve in the ED, sounds like a blast… said no one ever.” These are just a few of the comments I have heard over the last few weeks leading up to the holidays. The last one is courtesy of myself. While I complain, deep down I know it’s not so bad. If you look hard enough I have found you can find the holiday [+]
Trick of the Trade: Isopropyl Alcohol Vapor Inhalation for Nausea and Vomiting
Your triage nurse complains of numerous patients in the waiting room complaining of nausea, retching, and emesis. They ask you “why can’t we have an antiemetic on hand in triage?” Turns out they might have had an effective antiemetic on hand, or rather in their scrub pocket the entire time. They just didn’t know about it yet. [+]
PEM Pearls: Cardiac causes of pediatric chest pain
Children with chest pain commonly present to the emergency department. Both the child and family members may think their symptoms are due to a serious illness. Among adolescents seen for their chest pain, more than 50% thought they were having a heart attack or that they had cancer.1 In reality, only 6% of pediatric chest pain has a cardiac etiology.2 Nonetheless, extensive and costly emergency department (ED) evaluations are common and there is wide practice variation.3 But prior to reassuring your patient, what can you do to reassure yourself that your patient doesn’t need a more extensive workup? What would [+]
Ultrasound For the Win! Case – 55-year-old man with chest pain #US4TW
Welcome to another ultrasound-based case, part of the “Ultrasound For The Win!” (#US4TW) Case Series. In this peer-reviewed case series, we focus on real clinical cases where bedside ultrasound changed management or aided in diagnoses. In this case, a 55-year-old man presents with acute-onset chest pain. [+]
AIR Series: Environmental Module 2
Unlike the previous cardiology modules, the environmental module was comparatively under-represented in the top 50 sites of the Social Media Index. Below we have listed our selection of the 4 highest quality blog posts within the past 12 months (as of October 2015) related to environmental emergencies, curated and approved for residency training by the AIR Series Board. More specifically in this module, we identified 2 AIRs and 2 Honorable Mentions. [+]
60-Second Soapbox: Maday (Name Game), Colbenson (Knee Immobilizer), Roland (Knowledge Translation)
Welcome to the newest iteration of 60-Second Soapbox! Each episode, one lucky individual gets exactly 1 whole minute to present their rant-of-choice to the world. Any topic is on the table – clinical, academic, economic, or whatever else may interest an EM-centric audience. We carefully remix your audio to add an extra splash of drama and excitement. Even more exciting, participants get to challenge 3 of their peers to stand on a soapbox of their own! [+]
AIR-Pro Series: Trauma (2015)
Below we have listed our selection of the 6 highest quality blog posts related to 4 advanced level questions on trauma topics posed, curated, and approved for residency training by the AIR-Pro Series Board. The blogs relate to the following questions: When to give tranexamic acid in the trauma patient The pregnant trauma patient Transfusions in the trauma patient Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta (REBOA) In this module, we have 6 AIR-Pro’s and we did not include any honorable mentions to prevent redundancy of the topics covered. To strive for comprehensiveness, we selected from a broad spectrum of blogs identified through FOAMSearch.net. [+]
Highlights from the 2015 American Heart Association CPR and ECC guidelines
The newest round of the 2015 American Heart Association (AHA) Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Cardiac Care (ECC) contains 315 recommendations.1 It is easy to be overwhelmed by this massive (275 pages) document so this post will distill what you need to know in the emergency department. This update marks the end of a 5-year revision cycle for the AHA and the shift to a continuously updated model. Current and future guidelines can now be found at ECCGuidelines.heart.org. This round lacks any of the major foundational changes seen in 2010; however, we do say goodbye to some recommendations [+]
Trick of the Trade: Dermal Avulsion Injuries 2.0
This year I published a Novel, Simple Method for Achieving Hemostasis of Fingertip Dermal Avulsion Injuries in the Journal of Emergency Medicine 1 — a technique I’ve used in my local ED for several years. In brief, this involves achieving hemostasis over a fingertip skin avulsion by using a tourniquet followed by tissue adhesive glue. After bringing the technique to press and sharing this video, I’ve received great tips from peers and subsequently refined it with some additional ideas. Thus I present for the first time on ALiEM: Dermal Avulsion Injuries 2.0. [+]
Director of Growth, Strategic Alliance Initiative, Center for Innovation and Digital Health
Massachusetts General Hospital;
Chief Scientific Officer, Conductscience.com
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