Tactical Medicine News Blog

Let us start 2014 with renewed vigor and interest in simulation! To do that, I am going to take it way back and review the basics of simulation with a 2007 article that I consider landmark for understanding medical simulation and the role it plays in education by one of the leaders in the field, Dr. David Gaba. 

Chest pain is a common presentation complaint to the emergency department (ED) and has a wide range of etiologies including urgent diagnoses (i.e. acute coronary syndrome (ACS), pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection) and non-urgent diagnoses (i.e. musculoskeletal pain, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), pericarditis). The challenge in the ED is to not only to identify high risk patients but also to identify patients who can be safely discharged home. Specifically, when dealing with ACS, dynamic ECG changes or positive cardiac biomarkers is pretty much a slam dunk admission in most cases, but a lack of these does not completely rule out ACS. Currently, most guidelines and risk stratification scores focus on the identification of high risk ACS patients that would benefit from early aggressive therapies, but what about all the other chest pain patients that don’t have ACS… are they accounted for?

[book-cover isbn=”1455508381″ align=”right”]Technology has changed the ways we are able to communicate. And a few, such as Salman Khan are actively using these new methods to change how we educate. And this is why his groundbreaking book, One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined [Amazon link] is the ALiEM January book club selection. 

Simulation based research is tough. We all know that it’s fun, and we think it is safer for the patients. Beyond that, the data is not so strong! And it’s important to care about this. Why? Because those working in the educational fields are fighting for budgets against other strong modalities for education such as ultrasound. Additionally, we are fighting for valuable time and space with the learners, such as medical students and residents. Improving simulation research can give credibility to those educators who seek more money, time, and focus for their learners. But how to improve it?

For many years, Annals of Emergency Medicine has selected two articles every month to make open access to non-subscribers, based on their perceived interest and/or importance. Problem is, we make those choices blind to what our readers really want. You can help us improve this selection if you would review the list of articles that will be in the April 2014 issue, and vote for any articles you’d like to see free full-text. Please vote on your top two choices over the next 2 days and we’ll make them full text open access shortly thereafter. The in-press titles and abstracts are listed below. Thank you for your support!