Lee is a second year pediatric emergency medicine fellow looking at a pediatric ankle x-ray. She is unsure if what she sees is a normal variant like a growth plate or ossification centre, or a fracture. Lee feels like her orthopedic knowledge is weak and wishes there was a tool to help her better learn to interpret visual tests such as x-rays and ECGs before transitioning to staff. This Feature Educational Innovation (FEI), …
Choosing Wisely: Low Risk Pediatric Ankle Fractures
This post has been co-written by Drs. Kathy Boutis and Maxim Ben Yakov. The dogmas of the past are now being challenged for the most common minor pediatric fractures, distal radius buckle fractures and minor distal fibular fractures. Since these fractures are stable and have an excellent prognosis, they do not need to be routinely immobilized in a cast nor followed by an orthopedic surgeon. Last time, we reviewed low risk distal radius …
ImageSim: Building Competency For Visually Diagnosed Tests in Emergency Medicine
Visually diagnosed medical tests (e.g. radiographs, electrocardiograms) are the most commonly ordered tests in front-line medicine. As such, front-line health care professionals are faced with the task of learning the skill of interpreting these images to an expert performance level by the time they provide opinions that guide patient management decisions. However, discordant interpretations of these images between front-line physicians and expert counterparts (radiologists, cardiologists) are a common cause of medical error1–9. In …
Choosing Wisely: Distal Radius Buckle Fractures
This post has been co-written by Drs. Kathy Boutis and Maxim Ben Yakov. The dogmas of the past are now being challenged for the most common minor pediatric fractures, distal radius buckle fractures and minor distal fibular fractures. Since these fractures are stable and have an excellent prognosis, they do not need to be routinely immobilized in a cast nor followed by an orthopedic surgeon. This article reviews the evidence that recommends that …