The Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine

Date: March 26th, 2022 Guest Skeptic: Professor Melanie Trecek-King Associate professor of biology at Massasoit Community College in Massachusetts. Founder and creator of Thinking Is Power. Reference: Trecek-King M.A Life Preserver for Staying Afloat in a Sea of Misinformation.  Skeptical Inquirer March/April 2022 Prof Trecek-King This is an SGEM Xtra episode. I met Melanie through our online inte...

Date: March 3rd, 2022 Reference: Macnow et al. Effect of Screen Time on Recovery From Concussion: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Pediatrics 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Catherine Varner is an Assistant Professor and Clinician Investigator in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is an emergency physician at Mount Sinai Hospital and a Clinician Scientist an...

Date: February 24th, 2022 Reference: Parish et al. An umbrella review of effect size, bias, and power across meta-analyses in emergency medicine. AEM 2021 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...

Date: February 21st 2022 Reference: Kim et al. Emergency psychiatric assessment, treatment, and healing (EmPATH) unit decreases hospital admission for patients presenting with suicidal ideation in rural America. AEM February 2022. Guest Skeptic: Dr. Kirsty Challen (@KirstyChallen) is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medicine Research Lead at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust (Nor...

Date: February 15th, 2022 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Tim Graham is a Clinical Professor of emergency medicine at the University of Alberta, and Associate Chief Medical Information Officer, Edmonton Zone, of Alberta Health Services from Edmonton, Alberta. Reference: Graham T. Physician heal thyself. CMAJ 2021 TRIGGER WARNING: As a warning to those listening to the podcast or reading this blog post, there m...

Date: February 7th, 2022 Reference: Williams et al. Short- vs standard-course outpatient antibiotic therapy for community-acquired pneumonia in children: the scout-cap randomized clinical trial. JAMA Pediatrics 2022 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Dennis Ren is a pediatric emergency medicine fellow at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. Case: A three-year-old boy presents to the emergency departmen...

Date: January 25th, 2022 Reference: Beyde et al. Efficacy of empiric antibiotic management of septic olecranon bursitis without bursal aspiration in emergency department patients. AEM January 2022 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Corey Heitz is an emergency physician in Roanoke, Virginia. He is also the CME editor for Academic Emergency Medicine. Case: You’re working in your busy freestanding emergency departme...

Date: January 22nd, 2022 Reference: Yu et al. Inhaled budesonide for COVID-19 in people at high risk of complications in the community in the UK (PRINCIPLE): a randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial. Lancet 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Justin Morgenstern is an emergency physician and the creator of the #FOAMed project called First10EM.com. Case: A 65-year-old woman with a history o...

Date: January 16th, 2022 Reference: Matchett, G. et al. Etomidate versus ketamine for emergency endotracheal intubation: a randomized clinical trial. Intensive Care Med 2021 Guest Skeptic: Missy Carter, former City of Bremerton Firefighter/Paramedic, currently a professor of Emergency Medical Services at Tacoma Community College’s paramedic program. Missy is currently working in a community emerge...

Date: December 28th, 2021 Reference: Kulvatunyou et al. The small (14 Fr) percutaneous catheter (P-CAT) versus large (28–32 Fr) open chest tube for traumatic hemothorax: A multicenter randomized clinical trial. J Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. November 2021. Guest Skeptic: Dr. Chris Root is a second-year resident physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of New Mexico Hea...

Date: December 21st, 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Howard “Howie” Mell began his career as a firefighter / paramedic in Chicago. He became double board certified in Emergency Medicine (EM) and Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Howie also has a Master of Public Health. Reference: Grotta JC et al. Prospective, multicenter, controlled trial of mobile stroke units. NEJM 2021 Case: The Mayor of your communit...

Date: December 21st, 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Spencer Greaves is an Emergency Medicine resident at Florida Atlantic University. He received his Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering from Marquette University and his Masters in Public Health from Dartmouth College.  Spencer completed his medical doctorate at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He and his wife live in Boynton Beach, FL where they recentl...

Date: December 13th, 2021 Reference: Lee et al. Addressing gender inequities: Creation of a multi-institutional consortium of women physicians in academic emergency medicine. AEM December 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Justin Morgenstern is an emergency physician and the creator of the #FOAMed project called First10EM.com Case: At the completion of her 1-month elective in your rural emergency department...

Date: December 10th, 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Carly Eastin is an Associate Professor, Division of Research and Evidence Based Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She is also the Chair of the SAEM Evidence Based Healthcare and Implementation (EBHI) Interest Group. Carly was a guest skeptic on the SGEM two years ago. That was in the BC Times- (Befo...

Date: November 16th, 2021 Reference:  Hammouda et al. Moving the Needle on Fall Prevention: A Geriatric Emergency Care Applied Research (GEAR) Network Scoping Review and Consensus Statement. AEM November 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Kirsty Challen (@KirstyChallen) is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medicine Research Lead at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust (North West England). She...

Date: November 10th, 2021 Reference: Andersen, et al: Effect of Vasopressin and Methylprednisolone vs Placebo on Return of Spontaneous Circulation in Patients With In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest. JAMA Sept 2021. Guest Skeptic: Dr. Neil Dasgupta is an emergency physician and ED intensivist from Long Island, NY, and currently an assistant clinical professor and Director of Emergency Critical Care at Nas...

Date: November 1st, 2021 Reference: Katsanos et al. Utility of Intravenous Alteplase Prior to Endovascular Stroke Treatment: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of RCTs. Neurology 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Michal Krawczyk is in his fifth year of neurology residency at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. He is interested in acute neurological illness, including cerebrovascular disease an...

Date: October 20th, 2021 Reference: Talan et al. Pathway with single-dose long-acting intravenous antibiotic reduces emergency department hospitalizations of patients with skin infections. AEM October 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Lauren Westafer an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School – Baystate. She is the cofounder of FOAMcast a...

Date: October 7th, 2021 This is an SGEM Xtra episode. I had the honour of co-presenting at the Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University, Department of Emergency Medicine Grand Rounds. The title of the talk "From EBM to FBM - Gender Equity in the House of Medicine. You may be wondering: why is a middle aged, white, heterosexual, cis gender, male, atheist, nerd co-presenting on gender...

Date: September 28th, 2021 Reference: Zampieri et al. Effect of Intravenous Fluid Treatment With a Balanced Solution vs 0.9% Saline Solution on Mortality in Critically Ill Patients: The BaSICS Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Aaron Skolnik is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine and Consultant in the Department of Critical C...

Date: September 20th, 2021 Reference: Litell et al. Most emergency department patients meeting sepsis criteria are not diagnosed with sepsis at discharge. AEM 2021. Guest Skeptic: Dr. Jess Monas is a Consultant in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Mayo Clinic Hospital, Phoenix, Arizona. She is also an Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medici...

Date: September 16th, 2021 Reference: Sippola et al. Effect of Oral Moxifloxacin vs Intravenous Ertapenem Plus Oral Levofloxacin for Treatment of Uncomplicated Acute Appendicitis. The APPAC II Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Rob Leeper is an assistant professor of surgery at Western University and the London Health Sciences Center.  His practice is in trauma, emergency gene...

Date: September 8th, 2021 Reference: Desch et al. The TOMAHAWK Investigators. Angiography after Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest without ST-Segment Elevation. NEJM 2021. Guest Skeptic: Dr. Stephen Meigher is the EM Chief Resident training with the Jacobi and Montefiore Emergency Medicine Residency Training Program. He heads curriculum and conference for the academic year and is passionate about resi...

Date: August 31st, 2021 Reference: McLean et al. Interphysician weight bias: A cross-sectional observational survey study to guide implicit bias training in the medical workplace. AEM Sept 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Corey Heitz is an emergency physician in Roanoke, Virginia. He is also the CME editor for Academic Emergency Medicine. Case: You are working in the emergency department (ED) with the new...

Date: August 27th, 2021 Reference: Gagnon et al. Direct-access physiotherapy to help manage patients with musculoskeletal disorders in an emergency department: Results of a randomized controlled trial. AEM 2021 Dagny Haas Guest Skeptic: Dagny Kane-Haas is a physiotherapist who also has a master’s degree in Clinical Science in Manipulative Therapy. Case: A forty-year-old woman presents to the emerg...