Article review: Importance of first clinical clerkship
What was your first clinical clerkship rotation? Oddly, I started my third year with a sub-internship rotation on the Burn/Plastics service as my first rotation. Not sure how that happened… I managed my own patients like a 4th year student, did lots of wound care, and even got to harvest a few skin grafts. It was trial by fire.In a recent JAMA article, 3rd year medical students who started their clinical experiences in an Internal Medicine rotation overall did better on overall clerkship grades, when compared those who started their rotations on the Ob/Gyn, Psychiatry, or Family Medicine service. [+]
Paucis Verbis card: C1-C2 injuries
I'm starting to work on co-authoring the next edition of my chapter on "Spine and Spinal Cord Injury" within the textbook "Emergency Medicine" by Dr. Jim Adams (Northwestern EM Chair). There are some useful tables that I created that I thought you might find helpful. This is the first installment covering C1-C2 fractures. The next PV card will cover the lower cervical fractures. I always forget which are stable and unstable. For instance, the above extension teardrop fracture looks innocuous but is an unstable fracture because the anterior longitudinal ligament is ruptured. PV Card: C1 and C2 Fractures and Injuries [+]
What’s on my mind: EBM Resource
Keeping up with the EM literature is difficult, particularly when we’re also trying to stay ahead of the curve in our own subspecialties (Healthcare Simulation and Medical Education in my case). Last week I was listening to Scott Weingart’s EMCRIT Podcast and at the very end of the show he mentioned a new EBM resource: TheNNT. [+]
Trick of the trade: Single digital block
Your next ED chart: Finger injury The finger needs to be anesthetized. Patient: “I have had this freezing before. The needles really hurt! Is there anything else less painful? ” [+]
Director of Growth, Strategic Alliance [+]
Tips to building authenticity into your talk
For lecturers, much focus is placed on improving the visual display and factual content of your talk. Keep slides simple Add relevant, non-extraneous images Avoid cramming too much information into your talk [+]
Director of Growth, [+]
5 rules for creating great Powerpoint presentations
As much as people talk about “Death by Powerpoint”, many of us still use Powerpoint despite its many shortcomings. So how can we make our Powerpoint talks better? This video reviews 5 great rules to live by. Interestingly, this dynamic video was built using Powerpoint by Nancy Duarte from Duarte Design. Of note, Duarte Design was the company behind the stunning slides which Al Gore used to present his compelling talk on An Inconvenient Truth. [+]
Trick of the Trade: Toenail splinting for ingrown toenails
It is 4 a.m. You pick up a chart. Toe pain. Thinking this could be an easy injury, you walk over to the patient, only to discover: bilateral ingrown toenails. Your heart sinks. In your head, you are thinking: Lateral nail resection? Nail removal? This could take a while. Is there a less invasive method for treating an ingrown toenail? [+]
New guest blogger: Dr. Stella Yiu!
Welcome to our new superstar, educator-extraordinaire, guest blogger, Dr. Stella Yiu. Today's post is her first (of hopefully many). After graduating residency from the University of Ottawa, Stella has been working as a staff physician at University Health Network in Toronto. She is involved in curriculum design in undergraduate emergency medicine clerkship at the University of Toronto. Welcome, Stella!
What is "contextualizing" patient care?
Medicine is as much about Science as it is about Art. This is no better illustrated than an educational intervention study about “contextualizing” patient care, published in JAMA. What is contextualization? It is the “process of identifying individual patient circumstances (their context) and, if necessary, modifying the plan of care to accommodate those circumstances”. In other words, this is care beyond the evidence-based guidelines, beyond standardized quality measures, and beyond the checklists. [+]
Paucis Verbis card: When murmurs need echo evaluation
Have you been in a situation where you are the first to detect a cardiac murmur in a patient? If you are hearing it in a busy, loud Emergency Department, I find that it's at least a grade III. Should you order an echocardiogram for further outpatient evaluation? It depends on the grade and characteristic of the murmur, in addition to the patient's symptoms. For instance, all diastolic murmurs require an echo. There is a useful ACC/AHA algorithm which helps you decide. PV Card: When Murmurs Need Echocardiography Evaluation Adapted from [1] Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources. Thanks [+]