The Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine

Date: September 16th, 2020 Guest Skeptics: Dr. Robert Goulden and Dr. Audrey Marcotte are Chief Residents from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Program at McGill University. Robert’s academic interests include research and evidence-based medicine. Alongside his EM residency, he is doing a PhD in epidemiology. Audrey’s academic interests include trauma and resuscitation. Outside of medicine,...

Date: September 11th, 2020 This is an SGEM Xtra episode. I was invited by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) to give a talk at their council meeting on burnout. It was an opportunity to share my journey and give an important message about kindness. I have discussed burnout and wellness a number of times on the SGEM: SGEM#289: I Want a Dog to Relieve My Stress in the Emergency...

Date: August 27th, 2020 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Malthaner is the Chair/Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery, Director of Thoracic Surgery Research and Simulation, and Professor in the Departments of Surgery, Oncology, and Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry and Western University. Rick is also the founder of Western University’s Department of Surgery Jou...

Date: September 3rd, 2020 It has been a tough year for all of us with the global pandemic of COVID19. I hope everyone is safe and taking care of themselves both physically and mentally. It is more important than ever during these difficult times to stay socially connected to those we love and care about. You are all leaders in your own way and can set the tone for your community. Lead by example:...

Date: August 18th, 2020 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Corey Heitz is an emergency physician in Roanoke, Virginia. He is also the CME editor for Academic Emergency Medicine. Reference: Carpenter et al. Diagnosing COVID-19 in the Emergency Department: A Scoping Review of Clinical Exam, Labs, Imaging Accuracy and Biases. AEM August 2020 Case: You are working in the emergency department during the COVID-19 outbr...

Date: July 20th, 2020 Guest Skeptic: Professor Simon Carley is Creator, Webmaster, owner and Editor in Chief of the St. Emlyn’s blog and podcast. He is Professor of Emergency Medicine at Manchester Metropolitan University and a Consultant in adult and paediatric Emergency Medicine at Manchester Foundation Trust. Dr. Carley is even verified on twitter as @EMManchester. Reference: Carley et al. Evid...

Date: July 13th, 2020 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Justin Morgenstern is an emergency physician and the creator of the excellent #FOAMed project called First10EM.com. He has a great new blog post about increasing diversity in medicine using something called the BSAP approach and an interesting Broome Doc podcast with Dr. Casey Parker called EBM 2.0.   Reference: Ebell et al. Accuracy of Signs and Symptoms f...

Date: June 30th, 2020 Guest Skeptic: Professor Daniel Fatovich is an emergency physician and clinical researcher based at Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia. He is Head of the Centre for Clinical Research in Emergency Medicine, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research; Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Western Australia; and Director of Research for Royal Perth Hospital. Refer...

Date: June 27th, 2020 I had the pleasure of presenting at the Northern Constellation Faculty Development Conference 2020 on May 8th. This was the 9th annual conference put on by the Northern School of Medicine (NOSM). Dr. Sarah McIsaac was kind enough to invite me to present at the Northern Constellation Conference. She is an anesthesiologist/intensivist at Health Sciences North, Assistant Profess...

Date: June 14th, 2020 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Dennis Ren is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellow at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. Reference: Kuppermann et al. A Clinical Prediction Rule to Identify Febrile Infants 60 Days and Younger at Low Risk for Serious Bacterial Infections. JAMA Pediatr. 2019. Case: A 5-week-old full term female presents to the Emergency Department (ED) for feve...

Date: June 9th, 2020 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Chris Bond is an Emergency Medicine Physician and Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary. He is also an avid FOAM supporter/producer through various online outlets including TheSGEM. Reference: Westafer et al. Provider Perspectives on the Use of Evidence-based Risk Stratification Tools in the Evaluation of Pulmonary Embolism: A Qualitative Study. A...

Date: June 2nd, 2020 Reference: Permpikul et al. Early Use of Norepinephrine in Septic Shock Resuscitation (CENSER): A Randomized Trial. Respir Crit Care Med 2019. Guest Skeptic: Dr. Max Hockstein trained as an Emergency Medicine physician at University of Texas Southwestern and is finishing his Intensive Care fellowship at Emory. Max is then going to Georgetown to be an attending in both EM and I...

Date: May 29th, 2020 Reference: Erramouspe et al. Mortality and Complication Rates in Adult Trauma Patients Receiving Tranexamic Acid: A Single-center Experience in the Post–CRASH-2 Era. AEM May 2020 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Corey Heitz is an emergency physician in Roanoke, Virginia. He is also the CME editor for Academic Emergency Medicine. Case: A 44-year-old male presents to your level 1 trauma cente...

Date: May 19th, 2020 Reference: Yang P et al. Endovascular thrombectomy with or without intravenous alteplase in acute stroke. NJEM 2020. Guest Skeptic: Dr. Anand Swaminathan is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson, NJ. Managing editor of EM:RAP and Associate Editor at REBEL EM. Case: A 53-year-old previously healthy man presents with 1.5...

Date: May 18th, 2020 I was asked to participate in a debate regarding the issue of Masks4All in Canada by the people involved in the COVID Information for Canadian Physicians Facebook group. This is a private group ~22,000 physicians, residents, students and nurse practitioners from around the world. Dr. Joe Vipond I was reluctant to participate but was convinced after having a good conversation w...

Date: May 9th, 2020 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Sean Moore is an Assistant Professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), Chief of Emergency Services at Lake of the Woods Hospital in Kenora, Medical director with Ornge, and Associate Medical Director with CritiCall Ontario. CAEP Town Hall We had the pleasure of presenting for the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) COVID-19 To...

Date: April 24th, 2020 Reference: Watanabe et al. Is Use of Warning Lights and Sirens Associated With Increased Risk of Ambulance Crashes? A Contemporary Analysis Using National EMS Information System (NEMSIS) Data. Annals of Emergency Medicine. July 2019 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Robert Edmonds is an emergency physician in the US Air Force in Virginia.  This is Bob’s eleventh visit to the SGEM. Disclaim...

Date: April 21st, 2020 Reference: Juergens et al. Effectiveness of emergency physician determinations of the need for thrombolytic therapy in acute stroke. Proc Baylor Univ Med Center Oct 2019 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Chuck Sheppard is an attending Emergency Department Physician at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Missouri and the medical director for Mercy Life Line air medical service.  He has been prac...

Date: April 9th, 2020 Reference: Kline et al. Randomized trial of therapy dogs versus deliberative coloring (art therapy) to reduce stress in emergency medicine providers. AEM April 2020 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Justin Morgenstern is an emergency physician and the creator of the excellent #FOAMed project called First10EM.com Case: It has been a hard shift. You wish you could say “uncharacteristically”,...

Date: April 4th, 2020 It has been just over a year since Dr. Salim Razaie (REBEL EM) and I stepped into the ring for a boxing matched theme debate in Sydney, Australia. It was the EBM rumble down under for SMACC 2019. How the world has changed with COVID19. You can see the original SGEM Xtra post from March 2019. It has more details about each issue we discussed and our slides. This is being poste...

Date: March 27th, 2020 Reference: Secko et al. Musculoskeletal Ultrasonography to Diagnose Dislocated Shoulders: A ProspectiveCohort. Ann Emerg Med Feb 2020 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Tony Zitek is an Emergency Medicine physician in Miami, Florida. He is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine for Florida International University and Nova Southeastern University, and Tony is the Research Director for...

Date: March 18th, 2020 Reference: Ebell et al. Accuracy of Biomarkers for the Diagnosis of Adult Community-Acquired Pneumonia: A Meta-analysis. AEM March 2020 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Chris Bond is an emergency medicine physician and assistant Professor at the University of Calgary. He is also an avid FOAM supporter/producer through various online outlets including TheSGEM. Disclaimer: This is Not an Ep...

Date: March 12th, 2020 Dr. Jonathan Stea Guest Skeptic: Dr. Jonathan Stea (@Jonathanstea) is a PhD Clinical Psychologist working at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, Alberta. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary. This SGEM Xtra is based on a tweet from about a month ago on The 10 Commandments of helping distinguish between science from p...

Date: March 4th, 2020 Reference: Radonovich et al. N95 Respirators vs Medical Masks for Preventing Influenza Among Health Care Personnel. A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2019 The Respiratory Protection Effectiveness Clinical Trial (ResPECT) Guest Skeptics: Dr. Christopher Patey is an Assistant Professor with Memorial University Medical School in St. John’s, Newfoundland Canada. Over the past sev...

Date: February 28th, 2020 Reference: Rajendran et al. Randomised control trial of adult therapeutic colouring for the management of significant anxiety in the Emergency Department. AEM February 2020 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Corey Heitz is an emergency physician in Roanoke, Virginia. He is also the CME editor for Academic Emergency Medicine. Case: One night during an overnight shift, you are taking care...