Peer Accountability: A Strategy for Maintaining Commitment to Personal and Professional Obligations
There are a number of personal attributes characterizing the professional identity of “physician.” We are dedicated to patients, committed to lifelong learning, and responsible for a variety of other professional obligations. Each requires physicians to be highly accountable – obligated or willing to accept responsibility for one’s actions. In this post we present examples of how we’ve adopted peer accountability as a strategy to help us with the myriad responsibilities and obligations at the heart of our profession. Just in time for the New Year – we challenge each of our readers to consider finding an “accountability partner” in 2020! [+]
EMRad: Can’t Miss Adult Wrist Injuries
Have you ever been working a shift at 3 AM and wondered, “Am I missing something? I’ll just splint and instruct the patient to follow up with their PCP in 1 week.” This is a reasonable approach, especially if you’re concerned there could be a fracture. But we can do better. Enter the “Can’t Miss” series: a series organized by body part that will help identify common and catastrophic injuries. This list is not meant to be a comprehensive review of each body part, but rather to highlight and improve your sensitivity for these potentially [+]
EMRad: Radiologic Approach to the Traumatic Wrist
This is EMRad, a series aimed at providing “just in time” approaches to commonly ordered radiology studies in the emergency department. When applicable, it will provide pertinent measurements specific to management, and offer a framework for when to get an additional view, if appropriate. Last post, we focused on the elbow. Now: the wrist. [+]
PECARN: Its relevance and importance in pediatric emergency care
Did you know that many of the landmark pediatric emergency medicine (EM) studies come from the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) collaborative? It works to address the challenging pediatric questions that only multicenter studies can. In this blog post, we highlight PECARN’s goal to translate, disseminate, and implement evidence to all providers of emergent and urgent care for pediatric patients. [+]
ALiEM Annual Report 2019: Innovation moves at the speed of trust
Before we launch too far into the 2020 year, we look back and celebrate our team’s successes and lessons learned from each of our projects and leaders. There are too many people who make the ALiEM efforts possible to include in our annual report, but we wish to publicly thank them all for their dedication towards education. Attached below is a glimpse into our team’s efforts and reach. [+]
ACMT Toxicology Visual Pearls: Painful Hand
What is the recommended treatment for a patient with this hand injury following a sting by the marine creature shown? [+]
Angela Rombola, MD
Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC
Latest posts by Angela Rombola, MD (see all)
SplintER Series: A Rare Cause of Traumatic Thumb Pain
A 45 year-old male presents with right thumb pain and deformity after falling off his bicycle. You obtain hand x-rays and see the following images. What is the most likely diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and management plan? Figure 1. AP and oblique views of the hand. Author’s own images. [+]
Victor Huang, MD
Teaming Tips 10: Resuscitate Your Meetings | ALiEM Faculty Incubator
Many of you are asked to take a leadership role in leading a team, whether it’s for research, administration, or even clinical. It is easy to feel unprepared for these roles, and there are many pitfalls waiting to sabotage your team’s productivity. The ALiEM Faculty Incubator has created a series of 10 case-based teaming problems to provide you with evidence-based advice and solutions for tackling some of the more common problems encountered in our professional team experiences. [+]
SplintER Series: The 2 minute ankle exam | Leg Day #5
Welcome to Leg Day #5 of the SplintER Series. The focused history and physical ankle exam of the patient with an acute ankle injury is a crucial tool often overlooked in the Emergency Department (ED). Our hope is that after enough practice, you will be able to complete your ankle exam within 2 minutes! The key is to practice, practice, and practice some more. [+]
SAEM Clinical Image Series: A Multifactorial Skin Eruption
A 9-year-old male with no past medical history, brought in by his mother to the ER with a new rash on his face and torso. The rash began 10 days ago. On the day he developed the rash, the patient noted swimming in a newly chlorinated outdoor pool. That same day he also played with freshly picked oranges and limes outdoors with his friends, having squeezed the juices onto his head and body. He developed a non-painful, non-pruritic, hyper-pigmented rash on his left cheek. Over the course of 3 days, the patient and his family [+]