Escaping Addiction with Dignity as a Medical Student
“The most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about.” –David Foster Wallace Addiction can be a nightmare of isolation and shame, but it doesn’t have to be. I will always remember my last night of withdraw; sitting in the busy waiting room of my training hospital. I kept thinking about what might happen if one of my EM attendings were to care for me. To see me sick, weak, and vulnerable. Nobody other than my family knew I struggled with alcohol abuse, and I was exhausted with the neverending cycle of [+]
EM Match Advice: Program Directors Reflect on the 2016 Match
The new emergency medicine (EM) residency application season is upon us! Senior medical students are arranging away EM electives, asking for letters of recommendations, and thinking about what residency programs to apply to. But before we look forward, what lessons can we learn from the 2016 EM Residency Match? In this EM Match Advice series installment, an esteemed panel of program directors reflect on the trends, surprises, and lessons learned from the 2015-16 year. Dr. Michael Gisondi (Northwestern) hosts the discussion with the panelists Dr. Diane Rimple (University of New Mexico), Dr. Michael Bond (University of Maryland), and Dr. Christopher Doty (University of Kentucky). [+]
MEdIC Case: The Case of the Honorary Authorship
Welcome to season 3, episode 9 of the ALiEM Medical Education in Cases (MEdIC) series! Our team (Brent Thoma, Sarah Luckett-Gatopoulos, Tamara McColl, Eve Purdy, John Eicken, and Teresa Chan) is pleased to welcome you to our online community of practice where we discuss the practice of academic medicine! In this month’s case a junior staff person is unsure of whether or not to include a senior staff on a paper. [+]
IDEA Series: Just-in-Time Procedural Training for Endotracheal Intubation
The Problem Procedural training is critical in emergency medicine (EM). EM residents must effectively acquire the skills to safely and accurately perform high-stakes, invasive, and life-saving procedures during high-pressure scenarios. Residency programs typically incorporate procedural skills workshops into didactic sessions, which results in residents practicing procedures several weeks or months before performing them clinically. Unfortunately, there is no established method to practice and evaluate procedural skills competency immediately prior to performing invasive procedures on a patient. A solution to this issue may lead to improved outcomes and greater patient safety. [+]
AIR-Pro Series: Critical Care (part 2) Module
Welcome to the Critical Care (Part 2) Block! Below we have listed our selection of the highest quality posts related to 4 advanced level questions on critical care topics posed, curated, and approved for senior residents by the AIR-Pro Series Board. The blogs relate to the following questions: Advanced ventilatory management Submassive pulmonary embolism management Hypotensive intubation End of life discussion AIR Stamp of Approval and Honorable Mentions In an effort to truly emphasize the highest quality posts, we have 2 subsets of recommended resources. The AIR-Pro stamp of approval will only be given to posts scoring above a strict scoring cut-off of ≥28 points (out [+]
AIR Series and AIR-Pro Series are moving to ALiEMU!
The ALiEM Approved Instructional Resources (AIR) and AIR-Pro series are moving from this ALiEM blog, which uses embedded Google Forms for quizzes into our custom learning management system called ALiEMU. ALiEMU will be our one-stop system for asynchronous learning. For U.S. EM residency programs, this will also serve as a central repository for Individualized Interactive Instruction (III) resources for asynchronous conference credit. The cornerstone e-course already on ALiEMU is CAPSULES — a comprehensive EM pharmacology curriculum, whose authorship and editorial team is led by Dr. Bryan Hayes. For the AIR and AIR-Pro series, we have over 80 U.S. EM residency programs, 4 international EM programs, and 1 PA [+]
AIR Series: Orthopedics Upper Extremity Module (2016)
Welcome to the Orthopedics Upper Extremity Module! After carefully reviewing all relevant posts from the top 50 sites of the Social Media Index the ALiEM AIR Team is proud to present the highest quality orthopedic upper extremity content. Below we have listed our selection of the 14 highest quality blog posts within the past 12 months (as of March 2016) related to orthopedic upper extremity emergencies, curated and approved for residency training by the AIR Series Board. More specifically in this module, we identified 2 AIRs and 12 Honorable Mentions. We recommend programs give 5 hours (just over 20 minutes per [+]
AIR Series: Orthopedics Lower Extremity Module (2016)
Welcome to the Orthopedics Lower Extremity Module! After carefully reviewing all relevant posts from the top 50 sites of the Social Media Index the ALiEM AIR Team is proud to present the highest quality orthopedic lower extremity content. Below we have listed our selection of the 3 highest quality blog posts within the past 12 months (as of March 2016) related to orthopedic lower extremity emergencies, curated and approved for residency training by the AIR Series Board. More specifically in this module, we identified 1 AIRs and 2 Honorable Mentions. We recommend programs give 1 hour (20 minutes per article) of III [+]
Free ALiEM In-Training Exam Prep Book is now published
It is with great pleasure that we announce the first edition of the ALiEM In-Training Exam Prep Book in both PDF and iBook form. This free book was a year-long project from the Chief Resident Incubator, led by the Editors Dr. Michael Gottlieb, Dr. Dorothy Habrat, Dr. Margaret Sheehy, Dr. Samuel Zidovetsky, and Dr. Adaira Chou with the support of Associate Editors Dr. Nikita Joshi and Dr. Michelle Lin. Over 90 EM residents and faculty from the Incubator and across U.S. emergency medicine residency programs contributed board-review type questions. Five practice tests are included for those preparing for the in-training exam (also known as the in-service exam) or even [+]
Lumbar Puncture on an Anticoagulated Patient in the Emergency Department: Is it safe?
The lumbar puncture (LP) procedure is commonly performed in the Emergency Department (ED). While minor complications of LP such as post-procedure headache or back pain occur somewhat regularly, significant complications such as post-procedural spinal hematomas, are rare.1 Despite their low incidence, these spinal hematomas are associated with a significant amount of morbidity for the patient and increased medicolegal risk for the provider. [+]
