Tactical Medicine News Blog

Welcome to season 5, episode 2 of the ALiEM Medical Education in Cases (MEdIC) series! Our team (Drs. Tamara McColl, Teresa Chan, John Eicken, Sarah Luckett-Gatopoulos, Eve Purdy, Alkarim Velji, and Brent Thoma) is pleased to welcome you to our online community of practice where we discuss the practice of academic medicine! This month’s case was developed collaboratively with the team at Simulcast. For the unacquainted, Simulcast is an excellent simulation website operated by our Australian colleagues that even includes a Journal Club set-up based loosely on the MEdIC discussion concept. Check it out following the completion of the case for a podcast that will delve into some of the issues that arose from this month’s MEdIC case which presents a simulation educator who is having difficulty connecting with her learners during debriefing sessions.

Welcome back to Episode 41 of REBEL Cast. In this episode, we will be discussing some studies from the past year that caught our attention in the area of resuscitation. Again, this 3 part series will be dedicated to discussing current literature and how it can be applied to your clinical practice.

Background: Acute Aortic Syndromes (AAS) are life threatening cardiovascular emergencies that are the bane of every emergency physician’s existence.  They are diagnostic challenges due to the clinical presentation being highly non-specific.  Computed tomography angiography (CTA), Transesophageal Echocardiography (TEE), and Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) can help accurately diagnose AAS. CTA exposes patients to radiation and large doses of intravenous contrast, neither of which is a good enough reason to skip the test in patients you think may have a dissection, but certainly not something we want to do to all patients coming to the ED with chest pain. TEE and MRA may not be available or able to be performed in a timely manner. Having a clinical algorithm that can help physicians reduce misdiagnosis and at the same time avoid over-testing are lacking.

Welcome back to Episode 40 of REBEL Cast. We have taken some time off but don’t worry, we are back.  In this episode, we will be discussing some studies from the past year that caught our attention, dealing with pain control.  With the hundreds of journals in EM/CC and the thousands of publications it is hard to stay up to date with current research. This 3 part series will be dedicated to discussing current literature and how it can be applied to your clinical practice.

ALiEM is teaming up with the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), which now offers live online education on emergency medicine research topics through its Research Learning Series. The ALiEM podcast team will work with SAEM content experts to deliver this high-yield research content in audio form! Check out the first example of this collaboration (“Being a Good Research Mentor and Mentee”) and be sure to listen to our next installment later this month.