Healthcare Providers in the COVID-19 Era: Keeping Clean When Coming Home

Given overcrowded hospitals and limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE), showing up for work can feel like entering a battleground without ammunition for many physicians during the COVID-19 outbreak [1]. Despite this, doctors and nurses show up every day ready to do their jobs. While we have committed to the Hippocratic Oath, our families have not. How can we do our duty while preventing exposure of our loved ones at home [2, 3]?

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By Christian Rose, MD|2020-04-02T13:52:58-07:00Apr 8, 2020|COVID19, Infectious Disease, Life|

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.

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2019-11-01T10:50:33-07:00Nov 1, 2019|Guideline Review, Infectious Disease|

Guideline Review: ACEP 2018 – ED Procedural Sedation with Propofol

The last American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) guideline recommendations regarding the use of propofol for ED procedural sedation was in 2007. Much research has since demonstrated its safety in adults and children. Furthermore, many clinicians are co-administering ketamine or fentanyl in conjunction. This 2018 ACEP update¹ addresses these issues and much more. The following infographic summarizes the key points.

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By Kelly Wong, MD|2019-09-05T20:30:45-07:00Apr 17, 2019|Guideline Review, Tox & Medications|

Guideline Review: EAST Blunt Cerebrovascular Injury

Blunt Cerebrovascular Injury (BCVI) can be difficult to diagnose and potentially devastating to miss because of the risk of a potential ischemic stroke. The most recent (2010) Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) guidelines reviewed 68 journal publications to create the following recommendations based on the best available evidence.¹ We summarize the imaging and management recommendations most pertinent to the ED as an infographic for quick and easy reference.^1,2 Of note: an isolated neck seat belt sign is NOT an indication for imaging!

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By Kelly Wong, MD|2019-09-05T20:30:52-07:00Mar 4, 2019|Guideline Review, Trauma|

10 Tips to Become a Successful Interviewer: Do’s and Don’ts

As fall approaches, senior medical students and Emergency Medicine (EM) residency programs alike are beginning to prepare for the upcoming interview season. As part of the process, many programs have current residents interview potential candidates – their future colleagues! For most residents, though they have often been the interviewee, this is the first time they have filled the role of the interviewer. Among all the busy shifts and learning everything you need to know to be an amazing EM physician, there is little time for practice or formal training. To help, we have compiled our top “10 Tips to Become a Successful Interviewer.” Here’s to making this interview season the best one yet!

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By Meg Pusateri, MD|2016-10-26T17:04:15-07:00Sep 15, 2016|Medical Education|

10 Life and Work Tips for EM Residency Graduates

Congratulations to the Class of 2016 graduating class of emergency medicine residents! It is the end of a chapter and a beginning of another. For those of us practicing medicine for so many years, there are many things that we would have done differently… especially in that first year post-residency. In the following infographic, we present crowdsourced reflections and advice for residency graduates from the the UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine faculty.

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2019-01-28T21:40:19-08:00Jun 16, 2016|Medical Education|

Design Challenge | An ALiEM Fellows Project

Design thinking is a concept that has recently taken the business world by storm, and more recently it has begun to creep into other fields, like education! At the core of it, the idea behind design thinking is to encourage designers to think about how they might solve problems that are experienced in the world – to think like engineers and architects, and focus on building solutions for end users. As a part of their fellowship, the 2014-15 ALiEM Fellows (Scott Kobner, BS and Sam Shaikh, DO) were each tasked with a different design job a few months ago. Click below to read more about their projects.

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By Teresa Chan, MD, MHPE|2017-11-06T18:50:26-08:00May 21, 2015|Medical Education, Social Media & Tech|