Is Digital Attendance Enough?
Many medical schools have responded to student requests and begun to record and stream didactic lectures. Students report watching these lectures can be more convenient and allow them to personalize the time, location, and speed to their specific needs. Meanwhile, faculty are freed up from giving the same Powerpoint lecture every semester and schools can highlight their “digital presence.” It seems to be a win on all sides, except when you look at the outcomes. [+]
SplintER Series: Pain in the Palm
A 17 year-old left hand dominant high school baseball player presents with severe, sharp pain in his right hand at the hypothenar eminence with associated numbness and tingling of his 4th and 5th digits. The pain and tingling began after he swung his bat and hit a ground ball. You obtain x-rays and see an abnormality. What is the most likely diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and management plan? [+]
The Leader’s Library: Radical Candor | Curated Summary of the Discussion
Welcome back to The Leader’s Library! In our second installment, throughout the week of October 14, 2019, a group of selected learners across the globe tackled Radical Candor by Kim Scott [ALiEM book summary], and generated another fascinating asynchronous dialogue on Slack. This go-round, we had 3 days of discussion with days for reflection in between. Below are the main points that emerged from our robust conversation. [+]
Just-in-Time Training for Emergency Medicine Radial Arterial Line Placement
A 63-year-old male presents for acute onset of headache, neck pain, and altered mental status. He has a prior history of hypertension and hyperlipidemia but recently lost his insurance and has been unable to fill his medications. As a well-informed 2nd year resident, you suspect the presence of a ruptured subarachnoid hemorrhage and arrange an expedited trip to the CT scanner. The patient’s blood pressure continues to remain elevated and you initiate an antihypertensive drip. You decide that in order to have accurate titration, you need more reliable data and decide to place a radial arterial line. However, the last [+]
ALiEM AIR | Orthopedics Lower Extremity 2019 Module
Welcome to the AIR Orthopedics Lower Extremity 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 online content related to orthopedic lower extremity emergencies. 5 blog posts within the past 12 months (as of July 2019) met our standard of online excellence and were curated and approved for residency training by the AIR Series Board. We identified 1 AIR and 4 Honorable Mentions. We recommend programs give 2.5 hours (about 30 minutes per article) of III credit for this module. [+]
SAEM Clinical Image Series: Facial Burn
A 50-year-old female with a history of bipolar disorder, ADHD, anxiety, depression, and alcoholism presented to the ED after her family found her at home agitated, restless, and with a “large black burn” on her face. Her husband reported that she had been “picking” at this area of her face earlier in the day; at that time it appeared only slightly red. Per her husband, the patient had also felt “bugs crawling on her legs” and had been picking at and grabbing her legs on the day of presentation. [+]
TLDR Book Review: Deep Work – Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Do you struggle when you try to focus on one task for a prolonged period? When you’re reading or writing a paper, are you frequently tempted by social media, a click-bait HuffPo article, or what the latest Instagram celebrities have been doing? Most of us are not used to spending large periods of time doing deep work. Like any skill, the ability to focus is something that we have to develop and train. This book, Deep Work, by Cal Newport will explain why it is so critical to develop our ability to focus deeply, and how to do it. [+]
SAEM Clinical Image Series: Chest Wall Mass
A 71 year-old patient with a past medical history of hypertension, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty 7 years ago, and robotic coronary artery bypass grafting of the left internal mammary artery to the left anterior descending artery 9 years ago presents with worsening dyspnea on exertion. He had a biopsy of the upper lobe of the left lung the week before. He was having a neoplastic mass evaluated. The patient presents with a soft left-sided anterior chest mass, inflating and deflating with respiration. [+]
SAEM Clinical Image Series: Mysterious Blood Sample
34-year-old female with a history of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and pancreatitis presents for epigastric and left upper quadrant abdominal pain. Her symptoms started yesterday evening and have been worsening since onset. She reports chronic epigastric pain that waxes and wanes for several years since her first episode of pancreatitis in 2014. Yesterday she had an abrupt onset of nausea that accompanied the pain without emesis. The pain worsened and is now currently 10/10 in severity. She describes it as severe and deep. She has no bloody or dark stool. She denies any heavy alcohol use, [+]
Guideline Review: 2018 IDSA Update on Influenza (Infographic)
Did you get your flu shot? We hope so. Influenza season is upon us again and it is always helpful to review the latest 2018 Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) update on the diagnosis and treatment of influenza.1 Notable is that influenza-confirmed patients who present within 2 days of symptoms who are deemed low risk do not automatically warrant antiviral treatment. The subsequent question then is who is high risk? The following infographic by our Guidelines Editor, Dr. Kelly Wong, summarizes the key take-home points for emergency medicine clinicians. [+]