HOT OFF THE PRESS | ALiEM MEdIC Series Book, Volume 3
It has been 4 years since we launched the ALiEM Medical Education in Cases (MEdIC) Series, and we are very proud to have had 4 years of excellent engagement and participation from the FOAM audience with our interactive monthly discussions. This season has been a whirlwind. Together, we have explored challenging patient, learner, physician wellness, ethical, and assessment conundrums. We want to thank all of those who have written cases, acted as experts, and commented on the cases. We are thrilled to announce that a compilation of the third MEdIC season (last year’s cases) is available for free download. [+]
Finish Strong: Top 10 Things to Master Before Graduating EM Residency
If you are a senior resident, this post is for you! Right now you’re juggling an array of responsibilities. From adjusting to your new leadership roles in the Department to applying to jobs and fellowships, it’s easy to let that pesky procedure you have always struggled with or confusing ECG finding slip by you. To help you solidify your skills this year, we have come up with a list of things to master before the end of the academic year. Take a look, and tailor this list to your background and training. Come up with a list of your own, [+]
Building a Cohesive Residency Program: Top 10 Strategies to Engage Residents
Welcome to the beginning of the most exciting and terrifying time in your residency — the start to a new year! To help start the year off right a group of chief residents from across the country, through the ALiEM Chief Resident Incubator, have gotten together and compiled a list of ways for chief residents (and other resident leaders) to engage residents early to hopefully make this the best year yet of residency. [+]
ALiEM’s Greatest MEdIC Hits for New Academic Faculty: A Curated Collection of 8 Cases
Ok, while we congratulated the senior residents in our last piece, but let’s be honest, YOU (the junior faculty members) are the ones who TRULY should be congratulated. You’ve survived residency, and now you’re the boss! You’re probably sighing with relief at the moment. But eventually, you’ll ask yourself: “Now, what’s next?” Well, yet again, the ALiEM MEdIC team has some resources for you! [+]
Trick of the Trade: DIY Squirt Bottle Wound Irrigation
Wound irrigation is arguably one of the most important steps in closing a laceration, because all lacerations should be considered to be contaminated. Irrigation is considered the foundation in preventing infection. A common way to cleanse a wound is to irrigate a wound using a 20 cc syringe, angiocatheter, and splash protector. To achieve 500 cc of irrigation, however, it would require 25 syringe refills! Is there a better, cost-effective alternative? [+]
ALiEM Book Club: And The Band Played On
With consistent, adequate treatment, people with HIV have a life expectancy that is nearly normal. However, because HIV often affects the most vulnerable people in our society, getting that consistent treatment remains a real and important challenge. 30 years after And the Band Played On was first published, HIV/AIDS is now often viewed as a chronic illness, rather than the terminal diagnosis it was in the 1980s. For those born after the first AIDS deaths occurred in the US, it can be hard to imagine the fear, denial, stigma, and confusion that accompanied the early AIDS epidemic. Randy Shilts’ And [+]
ALiEM’s Greatest MEdIC Hits for New Senior Residents: A Curated Collection of 10 Cases
While we congratulated and welcomed the interns with the list of Greatest Hits for Interns, it’s high time we actually congratulate and welcome you… the new Senior Residents! You’ve toiled through call shifts on off-service rotations, you’ve worked hard reviewing cases with junior residents and getting grilled you about the latest esoteric facts by the seniors! And now, you’re going to be in charge of other other residents!?! You are probably equal parts excited and scared… but more to the point you may be wondering – How does one actually be a great senior resident? Well we have some resources for you! [+]
Trick of the Trade: Gaze Testing Using “Selfie Mode” on Your Smartphone Camera
The NIH Stroke Scale is used to assess the severity of a suspected stroke. It includes 11 neurologic exam components that can be quickly performed at the bedside. The second component of the NIH Stroke Scale is testing of voluntary horizontal eye movements, a.k.a., “best gaze”.1 Gaze is usually tested by instructing the patient to follow the examiner’s hand or pointer finger in a horizontal plane from side to side. This assessment assumes that the patient can comprehend instructions and actively participate in the physical exam. But… how do you test gaze if your patient is aphasic or unable to [+]
ALiEM’s Greatest Hits for Interns: A Curated Collection of High-Yield Topics
Congratulations, you’ve made it! On July 1, thousands of medical students across the country made the transition to becoming Emergency Medicine residents. It was a particularly competitive year for Emergency Medicine, with 99.7% of first-year spots filled despite a whopping 2,047 positions being offered in 2017 (up by 152 spots compared to last year).1 Now begins the most crucial 3 or 4 years of your medical training that will prepare you for the rest of your career in Emergency Medicine. [+]
Management of Major Pelvic Trauma
Pelvic trauma frequently is associated with other injuries from the high force required to break the pelvis. Management is focused on stabilizing the pelvis and stopping the bleeding. Due to other injuries requiring emergent surgical stabilization, pelvic trauma is primarily managed surgically with pre-peritoneal packing and external fixation, followed by angioembolization for continued bleeding. Emergency physicians must quickly resuscitate patients while gathering vital information to direct the correct definitive bleeding control strategy. New endovascular techniques such as REBOA (Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta) may change future emergency department strategies and improve mortality in severe pelvic trauma. [+]