Clinical Decision Rules in EM - Interactive iBooks

We are looking for participants in an educational survey about two modules we wrote in the interactive iBooks format. The goal of the modules are to assist Emergency Medicine faculty, residents and medical students in better understanding the evaluation and work up of patients presenting with a suspected PE or minor head injury.  The modules integrate primary sources from evidence based medicine, relevant clinical multimedia, interactive review questions and multiple layers of information for different levels of learner.

Interactive iBooks can be viewed on a Mac computer running OS X Mavericks, a new operating system released as a free software update last week, or on the free iBooks app (version 2 and up) on an iPad (mini or generation 2 or above with iOS5 or later). Interactive iBooks cannot be viewed on an iPhone.

The modules can be downloaded directly from this link: http://bit.ly/emrules

To use on your desktop, download the file and open it using iBooks. To use on your iPad, open the link on the iPad, choose Download, then Open in iBooks.

At the conclusion of each module is a link to a brief survey that focuses on the usefulness of these devices for teaching in the healthcare setting.  We are asking that you complete the respective survey by clicking on the link at the end of each module. 

• Survey for PE

• Survey for Head Trauma

Participation in the survey is completely voluntary, you can decline to participate or stop your participation at any time, if you wish to do so.  The study met criteria for exemption for informed consent by the Institutional Review Board, Temple University School of Medicine.  Thank you.  If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Wald at waldda@tuhs.temple.edu or 215-707-5879. 

Advice to new EM interns

The 10 Commandments of EM  are now over 20 years old, but still a must read before intern year. Dr. Rob Cooney did a great review of the original article on Better in EM. The commandments:

1. Secure the ABC’s
2. Consider or give naloxone, glucose, and thiamine
3. Get a pregnancy test
4. Assume the worst
5. Do not send unstable patients to radiology
6. Look for common red flags
7. Trust no one, believe nothing (not even yourself)
8. Learn from your mistakes
9. Do unto others as you would do to your family (and that includes coworkers)
10. When in doubt, always err on the side of the patient

I wanted to add a few bits of advice that have helped me as a resident:

1. Treat Pain. 

While you're debating what labs and imaging are needed to diagnose your patient, it's really easy to forget to treat the symptoms that they came in for in the first place. Do your best to help them feel better.

2. Ask the patient what they think is wrong with them.

On my first week of intern year, an attending told me "Patients will often tell you what they think you want to hear to get them what they think they need. It's your job to figure out what's actually going on."

I've found it tremendously useful to actually ask people what they think the problem is and what their biggest fears are. It has completely changed my management in several cases. Most importantly, it helps me address their specific concerns. The patient complaining of shortness of breath that got discharged yesterday may not actually here with uncontrolled symptoms, he's worried that he has lung cancer and thinks he needs a CT. Addressing those concerns directly makes everyone's life easier.


3. For every test you order, ask yourself why. What are you looking for? How will this effect your management?

Everything you order will cost your patient and/or your hospital money. More importantly, no test is benign. CT's come with radiation exposure and incidentalomas. People generally hate getting stuck with needles. Borderline lab results make dispositions difficult, especially when they are actually irrelevant to the complaint. Don't subject your patient to a more expensive and risky workup unless it's actually going to help them. No one wants to be a VOMIT.

This is a cat. 

4. Learn to put in IVs.

We get really good at ultrasound guided peripheral IVs and central lines, but it's still important to master doing regular old IVs. As long as it's keeping your skills up and not preventing you from seeing enough patients, it's probably not scut work.

5. See the patients that scare you.

When you read a triage note and your first impulse is to avoid the patient, you should probably see them. Confront your fears and your weaknesses and you'll be a better doctor.

That said, if you're concerned about your personal safety, problem solve with your team. The ED can easily devolve into unpredictable chaos, so we all need to be vigilant about keeping our workplace safe.

Free Medical Apps for Residents

Our hospital recently started a program where all residents are issued iPhones. Not only was this a great way to improve clinical communication, but it also allows us the opportunity to use mobile apps.

The phones automatically came loaded with the Calculate (medical calculator) by QxMD and Micromedex for drug reference. I was glad to recommend seven other free apps that I thought would be useful. These are now also approved for our residents to download to their work phones. Each link below takes you to the iTunes listing for each app.

• Read: Personalized Medical Journal
• New England Journal of Medicine
• One Minute Ultrasound
• SonoAccess
• Radiology 2.0: One Night in the ED
• 3D Brain
• Ahrq ePSS

As a staff writer for iMedical Apps, I will continue to keep an eye out for other great mobile medical apps for residents.

Life in the Fast Lane and Academic Life in EM are two other great sources of EM focused medical app reviews.

A Critical Eye on Mobile Technology in Medicine

Right after starting this blog, I became a staff writer at iMedicalApps, an online publication on mobile medical technology. I've really enjoyed working with them and reviewing medical apps on the iOS platform, though this means that my time for independent blogging on this site has been limited.

So why do I think it's worthwhile to review apps? As medical education embraces new technology, I think it's essential for us to look at new resources like mobile apps with the same critical eye that we use for evaluating traditional resources like medical textbooks and peer reviewed publications. At the same time, this is a fantastic opportunity to experiment with new ways to use technology in teaching, independent learning, and clinical practice.

Cardiac Catheterization is a patient education app

Iltifat Husain, the editor in chief at iMedicalApps, is also an Emergency Medicine resident. I respect the way he's created the site to be an independent, reputable resource for other health care providers. The focus is on finding how mobile technology can be used wisely and effectively, not on what's trendy. We're encouraged to honestly review the apps and to be clear about those that we would and would not recommend. Iltifat's recent review of AliveCor is a great example of how physicians should investigate new technology - not just focusing on if and how it works, but also if and how it can actually be useful.

Interactive iBooks are a new technology that I think have great potential for influencing medical education. I enjoyed reviewing Introduction to Bedside Ultrasound, a fantastic resource on the iBook platform.

I also wrote a commentary piece on the limitations of iBooks in their current form, and ideas for problem solving how they could be more accessible and useful to medical educators.

Can a medical apps make us better doctors? CPR Game is a great example of using technology to explore new ways of learning. This serious game simulates a cardiac arrest scenario and teaches resuscitation skills by encouraging players to identify and preform critical actions in a timely manner to save their patient. I found that playing this game helped me remember my resuscitation ABCs and keep a level head when working on medical codes. I look forward to seeing more fun, interactive teaching tools like this in medical education.

On the other hand, I reviewed some apps that I wouldn't recommend to other physicians. Coags Uncomplicated seemed like a great free educational app at first glance, but in the end turned out to have a hidden agenda - it was created by a drug company to sell more drugs. I called out Emergency Medicine iQ, a board review app, for having inaccurate references and incorrect explanations.  I also question the role of some apps in clinical practice - is it safe to use an app with an automated ECG algorithm? I don't think so.

All in all, reviewing apps has been a fun experience that has helped me find new med-ed resources, and learn about the pearls and pitfalls for using medical apps as a physicians.