TopMedTalk

This piece is a chance to hear more about the work of our guest, who made a big impact as a guest on a recent edition of TopMedTalk: https://www.topmedtalk.com/topmedtalk-computer-gamer-to-life-saver/ The Perioperative Quality Initiative (POQI) is here: www.poqi.org This piece covers cerebral oximetry with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), often used during the perioperative period of cardiovascu...

This piece explores the current thinking on hemodynamics, get ready for a deep dive into the conversation and controversies. Originally streamed live from www.topmedtalk.com as part of our coverage of The EBPOM USA Dallas Master's Course 2019. This panel discussion is chaired by Desiree Chappell , CRNA from Louisville Kentucky and Board Member of ASER. It features Monty Mythen , TopMedTalk Editor...

This piece ploughs into some of the academic papers that have provoked discussion in the perioperative community. We discuss the following papers: Risk factors for opioid-induced respiratory depression in surgical patients: a systematic review and meta-analyses. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30552274 Increased Postoperative Glucose Variability Is Associated with Adverse Outcomes Following To...

This piece took a look at the San Diego front line of the global fight against COVID 19 on March the 30th at the start of the crisis. What unique pressures were there; the large homeless population is a particular challenge, how do psychiatric patients further the conundrum. Also, what about the assumption that patients are likely to be carrying the virus so should all be treated as if that is the...

This piece is a conversation with friends of ours at Medtronic. Now is an interesting and resource-scarce time for everyone in medicine; Medtronic made huge waves here with their support of the Ventilator Training App, today we ask them about where it's at and how things are changing in the world of medical technology. How does product development actually work these days? How important have stand...

"The more I learn about this, the more my eyes are opened to how much opportunity we have to improve in this area" This piece covers the "perennial topic" of whether paralysis is bad for breathing, here with a focus upon outcome criteria associated with residual neuromuscular blockade. It's a piece based in part upon a recent talk at the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists annual conference...

"Just having more staff doesn't always equate to better care, especially when the staff do not have the skills required." Perioperative medicine has the opportunity to lead the way in advanced practice; the extended role of the practitioner within the perioperative pathway can be done with nurses, allied health professionals or physician associates. As we evolve these roles, we must be mindful and...

This vital piece deals with a variety of issues related to COVID-19; what we know and what we know we do not know: - Similarities and differences between COIVD-19 and Aqute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) - The most useful information observed by practitioners at the bedside, conscious of the lack of Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) in this area - The controversy regrading early invasive v...

"It's all about safety and recovery, it's not about speed"; this conversation focuses on enhanced recovery, are we getting it right and where are people getting it wrong? How reliable and well understood is the data behind it? Also, what are the current thoughts on perioperative steroids? How do we refocus and move back to enhanced recovery after surgery rather than "enhanced discharge" after surg...

TopMedTalk has recently engaged with a large number of new listeners, we are delighted to have you join our family of perioptimists! This piece works as a primer, it explains what lies at the core of the world's favorite perioperative medicine podcast; enhanced recovery. What is it? How do you implement it? What are its core principles? If you've never heard TopMedTalk before but you are a medical...

This piece explores perioperative shared decision making from a variety of angles. Where is the latest research? Is it something we can reasonably out source? Does it always play in the favour of the patient or do we as practitioner benefit from this process also? How do we implement it without 'bulldozing' through years of experience? Link to video featuring patient "Doug": http://www.petermac.or...

2020 was a big year for prehabilitation, the advent of a global pandemic has only increased the importance of this exciting field of medicine. Various questions from EBPOM 2020 attendees were tackled by the panel: Can you use "Timed Up and Go" (TUG) and The Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) to screen out unnecessary cardio-pulminary exercise testing (CPET)? What exactly is prehabilitation and what...

"My first thought was - why can't we do this here?" What is ketamine, what sort of drug is it and how is it used? How was it first synthesized? Was it intentionally found or another of science's happy accidents? This piece is a fascinating look into the history and future of ketamine with a focus on outpatient infusion centers. Could this unusual and "dirty" drug - meaning it acts on many parts of...

How do we manage our operating room capacity and restore elective surgery in a post-COVID19 world? A world where conditions change week by week, sometimes day by day. Managing capacity was always a challenge but now we need to think differently in order to stay resilient and agile. How has COVID19 changed the landscape now? What are the tools that exist to handle it? What are the systems and best...

"Oxygen is the commonest drug that we give to our patients today during surgery and the general anaesthetic" but what do we really know and understand about it from a perioperative perspective? This talk illustrates why, even with some of the evidence and background physiology that we have at our fingertips today, the following questions are still perplexing: How much is too little oxygen? How muc...

This talk aims to answer four major questions: How much fluid should you give perioperatively? Does hypotension matter? Should you use advanced hemodynamic monitoring, and do colloids have any advances over crystalloids? Using high quality studies and a data based approach in all four categories, a lot of which has come from conversations that have had happened at Evidence Based Perioperative Medi...

"As Anaesthetists the ultimate goal of almost all of our interventions and monitoring is to support cell energy production to provide mitochondria with the oxygen and the fuel they need to produce enough adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to power cell function and integrity". How human cells produce energy, how this changes in response to stress and how this may influence survival; this piece focuses w...

This piece covers the PREP-WELL project which is a community based prehabilitation program in South Tees, in the North of England: "We established the following guiding principles; we wanted to provide patient centered care under one roof with facilitated self management; we wanted to work as a cross sector collaborative, by that I mean primary care, secondary care and public health; all working t...

"We have to create the culture of learning; the culture of having a safe space, the culture of wanting to do better and learning those conditions in which we do do better" This powerful talk looks directly at how a clear approach to patient safety really can improve the standard of care where you work. What is the culture of quality and safety that you're trying to embed, can you actually do bette...

Pain is a subjective experience that affects all segments of the population. However, there are inter-individual differences in pain. The biopsychosocial model proposes that the intersection of biological, psychological, and social factors create a pain experience and pain outcomes that differ by sex, race, and socioeconomic status. "The minority stress theory ... the idea that for racial minoriti...

This piece was recorded at the start of the year, to celebrate the launch of Tom Woodcock's book Fluid Physiology, A Handbook for Anaesthesia and Critical Care Practice: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=F-m4DwAAQBAJ&printsec=copyright&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false The editorial team here at TopMedTalk recently (08/12/2020) reflected upon the fact that Tom's 'big areas to watch in 2020' have p...

This piece considers the need to understand the patient having surgery and the complexity with which they present so we can match our skills to them. Developing these skills requires new approaches; to education and training at undergraduate and postgraduate level; to challenge the old ways of delivering perioperative care. This requires new ways of working, the breaking down of silos, a rethink o...

This piece looks at some of the advantages to having a perioperative interdisciplinary team reducing complications, understanding and discussing risk, facilitating better shared decision making and increased patient satisfaction, even among those who - as part of this process - decide not to go ahead with an operation. It also incorporates evidence regarding what we know about COVID-19; "The risks...

"We did not have a concensus view on the very basic subject of fluid physiology and I needed to write a book". Recorded at the start of the year this piece builds on our previous look at Fluid Physiology, which you can find here: https://www.topmedtalk.com/topmedtalk-tom-woodcock/ We also make reference to the book "Fluid Physiology" which is available now, check out the website here: http://fluid...

"We, who physically will be elsewhere in the world, for example, in London and in Southampton, are going to - within what we're allowed to do - get together in a bubble probably at work, and set aside the time to watch the meeting together, and to share some food and maybe share some diet coke and talk about what we've been looking at what we've been learning. So that's the start of the hybrid eve...