I am Michelle Lin, ALiEM Editor in Chief: How I Work Smarter
In this inaugural post of the series “How I Work Smarter,” I wanted to share my thoughts and efforts towards working smarter and not always necessarily harder. I have been the Editor-in-Chief of ALIEM since 2009 where I first was only managing myself and now I working with an all-star team of very motivated and capable medical educators in EM. Three moving parts rapidly became thirty moving parts with thirty different deadlines. Here are my responses to the series questions. [+]
New Series: How I Work Smarter
We are all busy individuals trying to juggle various projects, a multitude of responsibilities, and balancing work and home life. “Work smarter, not harder” is often heard to remind us that we should be looking to improve our working styles to be more efficient. It is easier said than done. One place that I have drawn inspiration from is in LifeHacker’s “How I Work” series, which highlights the personal working habits of successful entrepreneurs and leaders. [+]
AIR Series: Infectious Disease, Hematology, Oncology 2014
Welcome to the first ALiEM Approved Instructional Resources (AIR) Module! In an effort to reward our readers for the reading and learning they are already doing online, we have created an Individual Interactive Instruction (III) opportunity utilizing FOAM resources for US Emergency Medicine residents. For each module, the board curates and scores a list of blogs and podcasts. A quiz is available to complete after each module to obtain residency conference credit. Once completed, your name and institution will be logged into our private Google Drive database, which participating residency program directors can access to provide access. [+]
New AIR Series: ALiEM Approved Instructional Resources
On behalf of the AIR Executive Board, we are excited to introduce the Approved Instructional Resources (AIR) series! The AIR series was conceived to provide a credible method by which an U.S. Emergency Medicine resident can receive academic credit for using Free Open Access Meducation (FOAM) resources. The Executive Board will release a list of high-quality FOAM educational posts and podcasts specially selected by our Executive Board, in parallel with the CORD residency training curriculum. We will have an accompanying quiz for each list and track who completes it. EM residents who complete the quiz can hopefully receive credit for Individualized Interactive Instruction (III) from their EM residency [+]
Most Followed #FOAMed Twitter Users
As the Free Open Access Meducation (FOAM; #FOAMed) movement has continued to flourish over the past few years, Twitter has become a vital method for disseminating/discussing educational and clinical content. We thought it would be interesting to see who is being ‘followed’ on Twitter in the FOAM world. Certainly, the metric of Twitter followers does not necessarily correlate with quality. And, it misses newcomers to the FOAM scene and those with a more focused area of expertise/interest. We are more interested in understanding the landscape such as who is involved, geographic locations, areas of expertise, and association with blogs/podcasts. [+]
ALiEM Bookclub Review: David and Goliath
What is the essence of the underdog? Are they truly disadvantaged? Or occasionally, are they disruptors that provides them with a brilliant new perspective on things? Therein lies the question central to Malcolm Gladwell’s latest New York Times Bestseller. This is the key concept behind the latest book by Malcolm Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath [Amazon link], and the topic of this month’s ALiEM bookclub discussion. [+]
PV Card: Pediatric Ingestion Dose Thresholds for ED Referral
Clinical Toxicology has published guidelines for out-of-hospital management of 16 distinct overdoses and their dose thresholds, above which, pediatric patients should be referred to the Emergency Department for evaluation. Clinical Toxicology is the official journal of the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology (AACT, @AACTinfo), the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC, @AAPCC), and the European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologists (EAPCCT). There are two caveats to be aware of regarding these guidelines. They were developed between 2005 and 2007. New medications have been approved since that time and there may be more recent data available. As with any poisoning, dose is [+]
Intraosseous Rapid Sequence Intubation
Intravenous (IV) rapid sequence intubation (RSI) is by most considered the gold standard practice for securing an airway in the critically ill. There are, however, scenarios where it may not be possible to get rapid IV access in a timely manner (i.e. severe cutaneous burns, hemorrhagic shock, IV drug users, and/or the morbidly obese). It has been reported that intraosseous (IO) drug administration has similar pharmacokinetics to IV administration, but there have only been a handful of cases reported using the IO route for RSI. In this post we will discuss intraosseous rapid sequence intubation and if it is a feasible [+]
MEdIC Series: The Case of the Justified Junior – Expert & Community Commentary
The Case of the Justified Junior presented a case of a learner that disagrees with his senior resident, a senior resident that may be biased in her decision making, and an attending faced with the opportunity to teach around this whole situation. And at the center of it all, we have a patient that may be at risk if the wrong decision is made. In keeping with our mandate with the MEdIC series, we launched this case last week and waited for the crowd to speak up and help us solve the case. We also asked two esteemed colleagues to [+]
Anxiolytics and Hypnotics: Are They Doing Harm?
A patient presents to the emergency department complaining of increasing insomnia due to anxiety. She states that she is not actively suicidal nor homicidal but she has trouble “turning off her brain” at night in order to sleep and her insomnia is worsening her anxiety. She has a history of morbid obesity and smokes 1 pack of cigarettes per day. In order to help you consider writing her a prescription for 5 mg of zolpidem as you presume it to be a benign way to deal with her current sleep disorder. But what does the evidence say about these drugs [+]