Faculty spotlight: Dr. David Wald
David A. Wald, DOAssociate Professor of Emergency MedicineDirector of Undergraduate Medical EducationAssociate Course Director – Doctoring CourseTemple University School of Medicine (Philadelphia, PA) EM residency training: Albert Einstein [+]
Director of Growth, Strategic Alliance Initiative, [+]
Trick of the Trade for Intubation: Two hands are better than one
Recently on my ED shifts, there were several especially challenging endotracheal intubation scenarios. A patient with thick frothy sputum constantly oozing out her trachea such that we couldn’t see the vocal cords– no matter how much suction we used. Imagine the Diet Coke and Mentos backyard experiment. I’m not kidding. A 300+ pound agitated trauma patient with almost no neck, who eventually was found to have an epidural and subdural hemorrhage. A COPD patient who was increasingly lethargic, hypoxic, and hypercarbic (pCO2>115), who I knew would start desaturating quickly as soon as rapid-sequence induction drugs were given. [+]
Faculty spotlight: Dr. John Brown
Dr. John Brown is the well-known (infamous?) Medical Director of the San Francisco EMS Agency — not a small task or for the weak of heart. He also practices at SF General Hospital and manages to keep level-headed in the midst of chaos. I’m constantly impressed by his clinical and political saaviness. You would never know how big of name he is when you meet him. Totally humble and understated, especially given all that he’s done for the city and our specialty. [+]
Cool web tip: Getting a "reader" – bringing web content to you
Do you feel like you are routinely checking various websites to follow up on recent journal publications, reading blogs, catching up on the news? What’s new in Annals of EM or Academic EM? What’s on today’s CNN or EducationPR blogs? I’m a firm believer that technology should make things streamlined and easier, rather than creating more steps and hassles. I recently discovered online RSS readers on the web. If you don’t have one, you should get one. [+]
Tricks of the Trade: Let there be light!
In various ACEP News Tricks of the Trade columns, I have mentioned the importance of adequate lighting to visualize subtle injuries or pathologies. Traditional room overhead lighting is insufficient, especially if you are looking for that needle-in-a-haystack laceration in thick scalp hair or a tiny foreign body in a wound. If you are using a traditional Tungsten penlight, you need to invest in a LED light source. LED penlights are very small (can fit on a keychain), super-bright, long-lasting, and costs only $3-30. [+]
Faculty spotlight: Dr. Ghazala Sharieff
It’s not every day that you get to meet and hang out with a fun, funny, humble, spirited, and super-smart person. I first got to know Dr. Ghazala Sharieff on the lecture circuit. She’s one of the major go-to speakers for anything related to pediatric EM. When I’m stuck in a dilemma about a pediatric patient, I think – WWGD? What would Ghazala do? [+]
Article review: Teaching when time is limited
A 2008 British Medical Journal article focused on practical tips and approaches to teaching in busy environments. This is especially relevant to those of us in Emergency Medicine. We are balancing trying to take care of patients, teach eager learners, and troubleshoot logistical hurdles while trying to find 30 seconds to eat dinner or have a bathroom break! I wonder how many emergency physicians have hydronephrosis at any given time on a shift… Someone should do a study. [+]
Humorous distillation of specialty personalities
If only I had this flowchart when I was a first-year medical student! I too have always felt that emergency physicians have a little baseline crazy in them to be happy and successful in the specialty. This diagram has been floating around the web for years now, and I wanted to share with you. It’s a humorous (partly because there’s some truth to it) decision tree on how to choose your medical specialty. Did you decide upon the right field? [+]
Tricks of the Trade: Tissue adhesives and tegaderm
Tissue adhesives for wound closure often seem to intentionally make a bee-line straight for high-risk areas such as the eye. To avoid inadvertent application of the tissue adhesive, Dr. Hagop Afarian (UCSF-Fresno) utilizes a transparent tegaderm tape with an oval cut out of the center to provide a protective barrier. Immediately after application of the tissue adhesive, the tegaderm can be carefully peeled off to reveal a still-drying, well-circumscribed aliquot of glue over the wound. Be sure that the wound is dry, and the edges are well-apposed prior to tissue adhesive application. [+]
Faculty spotlight: Dr. Renee Hsia
There are so many interesting and inspiring EM faculty and none more so than in our own department at San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. Renee Hsia is a rising superstar in our department who has received numerous fancy awards and grants including the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Faculty Scholar award. She makes me feel small, insignificant, and uncultured. For instance, I thought Eritrea was a rash. Anyway, read below to see what I mean. Good thing I can at least beat her in foosball. [+]