It’s 4pm on a Wednesday. As per usual, the chart rack is full, and you’re trying to stay positive and keep up morale of the entire team. You pick up your next chart, and as you read the chief complaint, your heart sinks into your belly. The complaint is, “severe headache,” and you’re alrea...

Whether we are working with a medical student, an off-service resident, or even one of our own, most of us involved in the education of emergency medicine have described the mindset of emergency medicine as different from most other specialties. But are we really unique in our approach to patient care and how we think? And if so, can one develop this “EM Mindset?” [...]

What if there was a way to better visualize the heart during cardiac arrest? What if you could see something on the ultrasound screen that triggered a specific, critical, and time-sensitive intervention? According to the 2008 ACEP Ultrasound Guidelines, as well as Matt and Mike from the Ultrasound podcast, that emerging emergency ultrasound application is…

Pediatric cardiogenic shock is an often insidious phenomenon with presentations requiring a broad differential diagnosis. Even after narrowing the diagnosis to cardiogenic shock, the list of possible etiologies is vast and the cause important to determine because the source of the shock will respond differently to different treatments.

I recently had the pleasure of engaging in a point-counterpoint discussion on the optimal agent for Rapid Sequence Intubation with Billy Mallon at Essentials of Emergency Medicine 2014. I took the pro-rocuronium side. For decades, succinylcholine (suxamethonium) was the paralytic agent of choice (a...

A particularly complicated case and tricky diagnosis, along with the need-to-know information for all emergency physicians

The transplant patient is always sicker than they appear. It is important to be aggressive in these patients since they are severely immunocompromised which not only puts them at greater risk of infection but also blunts their normal signs to infection. Always contact the transplant team to help wit...

The HEART score is an invaluable adjunct to emergency physicians when deciding which chest pain patients are appropriate for early discharge.