It’s a night shift, quieter than usual, though you wouldn’t say so out loud. As if the thought is enough to tempt fate, EMS rolls by. You got no patch, no heads up. “Car accident, just outside the hospital,” a paramedic calls as the patient is transferred onto the trauma stretcher. All you hear are unintelligible moans. All you see is blood streaming from a severely injured face. But the team’s already working, …
Call for Junior Editors, Class of 2021-22!
We are pleased to announce that CanadiEM is now accepting applications for our Junior Editor program! If you are interested in learning more about Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAM) or becoming part of our virtual community of practice,1 this program is for you. The application process deadline is June 30, 2021. What are Junior Editors? The role of a Junior Editor is very flexible. The main task is copy-editing and uploading article …
Root Cause Analysis in the Time of COVID-19:
You are midway through a busy rapid response shift where you have noticed an increased response time of the hospital’s intubating teams to decompensating patients. Over the last few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted restructuring of the use of many spaces to accommodate the influx of patients. You understand that the system is overwhelmed but you are optimistic that you can optimize the interprofessional team’s response times. This sets off a new …
Hosting More Effective Morbidity & Mortality Rounds
LeBron was in the last few months of his emergency medicine (EM) residency and was tasked with presenting morbidity and mortality (M&M) rounds during an EM rotation. Between clinical shifts and incessant studying for his exam, he carved out time to prepare the rounds. Although he had been a participant in many M&M rounds, he realized that he had never presented at one. He didn’t have a good case to present and wondered …
5 Things You Should Know About Elder Abuse in the ED
Studies suggest that the prevalence of elder abuse in high-income countries sits at around 7.6-10%.1 As individuals age, there can be a decline in social connections and even primary care visits. ED visits can be one of the only points of contact outside their immediate living environment, making this a crucial setting for identification of elder abuse.2 It’s a statistical certainty that anyone working in health care has encountered several victims of elder …
Artificial intelligence in emergency medicine: beyond the hype
During a busy night shift, you are reading a series of chest X-rays when you overhear a colleague remark, “This will all be replaced by computers soon, anyways”. You think back to a few Tweets on artificial intelligence in medicine and wonder if her comment has merit. There has been so much hype about the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recent years, much of which is optimistic and some of which is …