ALiEM Bookclub: Beyond the ED – Recommendations by Dr. Jan Shoenberger
Dr. Jan Shoenberger has been a long time leader in medical education. She is the Program Director at LAC+USC Emergency Medicine Residency and is dual boarded in Emergency Medicine and Palliative Care. She is equally well known for her involvement with EM:RAP, Essentials of Emergency Medicine, HIPPO EM, ALiEM, Emergency Medicine Abstracts, and multiple other courses and electronic resources. Beyond being a talented educator, many of her colleagues see her as an inspiration and a role model. We are pleased to have her contribute to this edition of the ALiEM Bookclub: Beyond the ED. The only important thing in a book is [+]
Trick of Trade: Build-it-yourself IV Fluid and Drug Administration Trainer
Simulation equipment can be rather expensive and wanting to practice fluid and drug administration does not always warrant the purchase of specialized equipment. Luckily, a simple administration trainer can be made in less than 10 minutes and only costs a few dollars (or even nothing). This is an ideal option for resuscitation training if you are already using a manikin without IV arms or an IO option. Learners can practice preparing infusions and administering fluid or preparing an injection and administering it via the syringe port. This trainer can have multiple IV cannulas in one lid and can even include an intraosseous [+]
ALiEMU CAPSULES Module 6: Pharmacology of Acute Coronary Syndromes
We are proud to present CAPSULES module 6: Pharmacology of Acute Coronary Syndromes, now published on the Academic Life in EM University (ALiEMU) website. Here is a summary of the key points from this outstanding module by Drs. Paul Takamoto and Glen Oettinger. [+]
I am Dr. Brian Rowe, Scientific Director and Research Guru: How I Stay Healthy in EM
Dr. Rowe is an emergency physician practicing at the University of Alberta. Having worked in different departments and taken on a number of different leadership roles, Dr. Rowe has certainly figured out a way to keep healthy and stay well. Having been an avid soccer player in the past, he continues to keep up his fitness, by incorporating activity into his daily routine. Keep reading to check out his wellness pearls! Here’s how he stays healthy in EM! [+]
ALiEM Bookclub: When Breath Becomes Air
Dr. Kalanithi was a chief resident in Neurosurgery at Stanford University when he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. “When Breath becomes Air,” is a touching chronicle of his initial journey into medicine and neurosurgery and subsequent transition to the role of patient after his cancer diagnosis. This profoundly moving memoir is a tribute to his young life and family that he had to leave behind, but also a sad glimpse of the potential that this promising young doctor and author never will attain. [+]
IDEA Series: Using LEGO Pieces to Help Residents Teach Procedural Skills
The Problem Emergency Medicine (EM) residents are responsible for teaching and evaluating junior learners in the clinical environment. According to Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requirements, EM programs must be able to deliver instructional programs to their housestaff on effective teaching principles. Unfortunately, few residents have had formalized training in coaching methods to apply during instances of procedural instruction. [+]
Introducing the IDEA Series: Ideas in Didactics and Educational Activities
The difficulty of developing innovative, useful educational initiatives that engage learners is not a new problem, particularly within the world of graduate medical education (GME). Faculty and residents around the country have worked for years to find solutions to make weekly conference, didactics, and other educational activities more captivating and effective. In addition, with the vast number of high quality online resources, a new question has arisen as to how to integrate these resources into weekly conferences. [+]
AIR Series: Neurology Module 2 – Headaches, Seizures, and Other
Welcome to the Second Neurology 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 neurology content relating to headaches, seizures, and other neurologic emergencies. Below we have listed our selection of the 17 highest quality blog posts within the past 12 months (as of December 2015) related to neurologic emergencies, curated and approved for residency training by the AIR Series Board. More specifically in this module, we identified 9 AIRs and 8 Honorable Mentions. [+]
MEdIC Series | The Case of the Pimping Physician
Welcome to season 3, episode 6 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 difficult medical education cases each month. As usual, the community discussion will be reviewed using qualitative research methods to produce a curated summary that will be combined with two expert responses to create a functional teaching resource. This month’s case takes us to a team on rounds. There is a rich history in medicine of questioning learners about the mundane, the weird, the esoteric, [+]
Calcium channel blockers for stable SVT: A first line agent over adenosine?
A 52-year old man presents via EMS with a chief complaint of “racing heartbeat” for one hour. He is placed on a cardiac monitor which shows a heart rate of 185, an ECG reveals supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), and his blood pressure is 143/95 mmHg. As you ask the nurse to procure 6 mg of adenosine, the patient’s eyes grow wide.”Please doc…” he pleads, “anything but that! Last time they gave that to me I thought I was gonna die!”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBQrddqWhzo&feature=youtu.be&t=3m14sYou recently read about using calcium channel blockers (CCBs) for paroxysmal SVT (PSVT), but can’t recall the last time you actually considered using them. After all, it’s [+]