Should I do a 3-year or 4-year residency?

This is a perpetual question facing medical students going into EM. Three- and four-year residency? The first thing you should know is that there are really three types: PGY 1-4: A four-year program that begins with the first postgraduate year of training PGY 1-3: A three-year program that begins with the first postgraduate year of … Continue reading Should I do a 3-year or 4-year residency? →

Protected: APC Course Audiobook

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Trauma 101

Here's an introduction to trauma and the primary survey. Here we talk about the initial management of the patient within the "golden hour" (the hour in which if we resuscitate the patient we may prevent death). So what do we do in that first hour? Test your knowledge Bring your answers to class on Friday. … Continue reading Trauma 101 →

How to do a good literature search

For your project, you will be doing a literature search based on a question that you have. This is a clinically-focused, self-directed learning exercise in which you first develop your own learning objective, then acquire evidence to answer your question, and finally present it to the class. We’ll do this on the last day of … Continue reading How to do a good literature search →

To CT or not to CT? Low risk head injury in kids

CT scanning of kids has been on the rise, though we recognize the limitations of this test. It's not perfect and has some real costs (money, time, sedation risk, cancer). Who do we need to CT and who can we get away without scanning? The Pediatric Emergency Care Research Network (PECARN) looked at a paltry … Continue reading To CT or not to CT? Low risk head injury in kids →

Toxicology 101

Here's a couple of videos on toxicology. This just goes over the basics. There's a lot more to learn on each specific toxin. If you want to follow along, you can download this PDF of what I drew (right click it and save it, print it, or do whatever you see fit). Let me know … Continue reading Toxicology 101 →

Protected: Student Locker Combinations

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Low Risk Chest Pain in the ED

I had a conversation with a few of the residents about the management of low risk chest pain in the Emergency Department. The issues which always seem to come up are: If the first troponin is normal, can I send them home? I don't think this is cardiac, let's just get one troponin and then … Continue reading Low Risk Chest Pain in the ED →

ACLS – Therapeutic Hypothermia

This final video looks at post-resuscitative care. This includes proper management of blood pressure, blood sugar, treatment of coronary artery disease and initiation of therapeutic hypothermia. So I focus mostly on that last one: pay attention mostly to how to induce it and in whom you'd induce it.

ACLS 2010 – Tachycardias

First of three parts, this one just goes over the algorithm. Then we'll look at some of the details. This one looks at some of the tachycardias and why the drugs work (and why to avoid others). More on tachycardic rhythms: namely the wide complex and irregular tachycardias. Pay attention mostly to the general concepts. … Continue reading ACLS 2010 – Tachycardias →