recent articles

practice updates

EM Cases: Decision Making in EM – Cognitive Debiasing, Situational Awareness & Preferred Error

While knowledge acquisition is vital to developing your clinical skills as an EM provider, using that knowledge effectively for decision making in EM requires a whole other set of skills. In this EM Cases episode on Decision Making in EM Part 2 – Cognitive Debiasing, Situational Awareness & Preferred Error, we explore some of the concepts introduced in Episode 11 on Cognitive Decision Making like cognitive debiasing strategies, and some of the concepts introduced in Episode 62 Diagnostic Decision Making Part 1 like risk tolerance, with the goal of helping you gain insight into how we think and when to take action so you can ultimately take better care of your patients.

practice updates

R.E.B.E.L. EM – Management and Disposition of Low Risk Chest Pain

Chest Pain (CP) is a very common complaint seen in emergency departments around the world. In the US specifically anywhere from 8 – 10 million patients present to the ED complaining of CP. Many use liberal testing strategies to prevent missing acute coronary syndrome (ACS) or other major adverse cardiac events (MACE), but this is not without increase in healthcare cost and false positive testing leading to more downstream testing.

practice updates

The Young Cardiac Arrest Patient

Managing the patient in cardiac arrest is both frightening and exhilarating. The majority of arrests in older patients is due to CAD. The young cardiac arrest patient presents a difficult situation for the emergency provider. In general, younger patients are healthier than their geriatric counterparts. There are differences in physiology which may contribute to different prognosis and care. This post reviews the literature behind cardiac arrest in the younger patient.

FOAMED

The Bleeding Pregnant Patient in the Third Trimester: Pearls and Pitfalls

Third trimester pregnant patients are not seen commonly in the emergency department, but when they are, they have the potential for severe complications such as hemorrhagic shock. This article reviews the most serious causes of bleeding in the third trimester of pregnancy and also discusses management options.

FOAMED

Recent Elective Abortion

Patients who undergo elective abortions may present to the emergency department for various symptoms and complications due to their recent procedures. This is a brief article of the complications of elective abortion. Workup and management of these complications are also reviewed.