You've seen it countless times: a patient walks into the ED with chest pain, and the EKG isn't screaming STEMI. But in follow-up, they end up having a massive myocardial infarction. What is the hidden culprit lurking behind those non-alarming EKGs? Welcome to the Occlusive Myocardial Infarction (OMI) world, where traditional STEMI criteria fall short, and a new paradigm shifts our approach to acute cardiac ischemia.
As we enjoy the remainder of our summer but look ahead to the upcoming school year, it’s time to start thinking about those back-to-school physicals and routine immunizations for our patients and our own kiddos. In this blog post, we will offer insight into two current methods of offering HPV vaccinations to our youngsters and their parents/caregivers and discuss which method improves HPV vaccination rates.
It’s hard to help patients quit smoking. Many of us, myself included, received limited training in tobacco cessation and may harbor misconceptions about effective treatments. To clear the air, we invited Michael Baca-Atlas, MD, our addiction medicine specialist, to join us on Primary Care RAP to debunk some common myths about tobacco cessation. Here are some highlights from that conversation.
Insect bites and stings are a common nuisance during warm summer months when people spend more time outdoors attracting insects with their body heat, sweat, and odor . While most bites and stings are harmless, it’s important to recognize the potential for severe medical conditions. Here’s a breakdown of common insects and what you might expect from their bites or stings.
Gastroenteritis is a common urgent care diagnosis, but clinicians tend to default to it because they lack a better explanation for a patient's GI symptoms. Don’t fall into the same trap as a fellow urgent care provider from New York who missed a case of testicular torsion masquerading as a benign GI complaint.
As the parent of a tween girl, I'm acutely aware of the risks associated with her eventual exposure to social media. As a family, we have been holding out on a smartphone for as long as possible (we signed the Wait Until 8th Pledge). We also plan to follow the current recommendations to wait until age 16 for social media exposure.
As a physician in the pediatric emergency department, I see a surge in sports-related injuries with the arrival of summer and baseball season. Baseballs (and sometimes bats!) have a particular affinity for finding the pediatric eyes that make their way to my hospital. The eyes are one of those “black box” organs with their own language and pathology.
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Is there anything more bread and butter in emergency medicine than intubating patients in high-stress situations? With five million adults needing emergency intubation annually, staying updated on intubation best practices is crucial. The PRagmatic trial Examining OXygenation prior to Intubation (PREOXI), just published in the NEJM and discussed on ERcast in this free segment, could revolutionize our approach to preoxygenation and, most importantly, improve patient safety.
Recently, one of my primary care patients sent me a routine question through the electronic medical record, asking when they should get a specific blood test to guide their medication dosing. When an hour went by and I hadn’t responded, my patient called the front desk of our clinic to ask the question over the phone and inquire why I hadn’t written back. They also wrote me another message, voicing their disappointment that I hadn’t responded to their question right away.
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