Tactical Medicine News Blog

Dr. Jan Shoenberger has been a long time leader in medical education. She is the Program Director at LAC+USC Emergency Medicine Residency and is dual boarded in Emergency Medicine and Palliative Care. She is equally well known for her involvement with EM:RAP, Essentials of Emergency Medicine, HIPPO EM, ALiEM, Emergency Medicine Abstracts, and multiple other courses and electronic resources. Beyond being a talented educator, many of her colleagues see her as an inspiration and a role model. We are pleased to have her contribute to this edition of the ALiEM Bookclub: Beyond the ED. The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you. – W. Somerset Maugham

Simulation equipment can be rather expensive and wanting to practice fluid and drug administration does not always warrant the purchase of specialized equipment. Luckily, a simple administration trainer can be made in less than 10 minutes and only costs a few dollars (or even nothing). This is an ideal option for resuscitation training if you are already using a manikin without IV arms or an IO option. Learners can practice preparing infusions and administering fluid or preparing an injection and administering it via the syringe port. This trainer can have multiple IV cannulas in one lid and can even include an intraosseous cannula, such as an EZ-IO.

We are proud to present CAPSULES module 6: Pharmacology of Acute Coronary Syndromes, now published on the Academic Life in EM University (ALiEMU) website. Here is a summary of the key points from this outstanding module by Drs. Paul Takamoto and Glen Oettinger.

Today, I gave a lecture on Hemophilia to our residents in San Antonio, TX.  Now this was a core content lecture that I have actually never given before. As I was preparing the lecture I realized that this is a diagnosis that comes up frequently enough that it is important to know about, but also so infrequently that I always have to look up the factor replacement options and calculations.  So instead of being our typical evidence based evaluation of literature, this post will serve as a reminder of the basics of hemophilia and what are the essential elements one needs to know to appropriately treat a patient with Hemophilia.

In this EM Cases episode on Pediatric Asthma we discuss risk stratification (including the PASS and PRAM scores), indications for CXR, the value of blood gases, MDIs with spacer vs nebulizers for salbutamol and ipatropium bromide, the best way to give corticosteroids, the value of inhaled steroids, the importance of early administration of magnesium sulphate in the sickest kids, and the controversies around the use of ketamine, heliox, high flow nasal cannuala oxygen, NIPPV, epinephrine and IV salbutamol in severe asthma exacerbations. So, with the multinational and extensive experience of Dr. Dennis Scolnik, the clinical fellowship Program Director at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and Dr. Sanjay Mehta, multiple award winning educator who you might remember from his fantastic work on our Pediatric Orthopedics episode, we'll help you become more comfortable the next time you are faced with a child with asthma who is crashing in your ED... The post Episode 79 – Management of Acute Pediatric Asthma Exacerbations appeared first on Emergency Medicine Cases.