Is Cervical Spine Manipulation All It’s Cracked Up to Be?

When Brit Long brought us another segment, "High Risk, Low Prevalence: Spontaneous Cervical Artery Dissection" in his High Risk/Low Prevalence series on ERcast, he dove deep into the world of spontaneous arterial dissections, particularly cervical artery dissections (SCAD). While the term “spontaneous” suggests these cases occur without a clear cause, studies show that up to 40% of SCAD cases follow minor trauma—and among the suspected...

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Dealing with Difficult Healthcare Consultants: Strategies for Navigating Tough Conversations

Every hospital has one. Maybe it’s the cardiologist who's never “impressed” by the EKG. The urologist who insists  that every stone should go home with a follow-up. Or that one hospitalist who never quite  understands why social admissions exist. 

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Critical Care Musings

January’s critical care topics go hand in hand, thinking about sepsis management and specifically septic shock with early initiation of vasopressors in the form of microdose pressors. In the segment “Upstairs Rumblings: What I Wish ER Docs Knew About Septic Shock,” Dr. David Page lays out a great argument for early treatment of possible septic shock with antibiotics, fluid, and pressors when needed. Before we go there, however, let’s take...

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Let’s Review Direct Oral Anticoagulant (DOACs)

If you’ve ever worked an ED at 3 AM during a holiday weekend, you know what’s coming: a patient visiting from out of town presents with a radiology report that is positive for a DVT. With no hematology or cardiology consults available, no access to the patient’s records, and the clock ticking, you’re left to manage the situation.

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The State of AI in Emergency Medicine

When I joined a Family Medicine practice in July 2004, fresh out of PA school, I was fortunate enough to share an office space with Dr. Robert Wettach, a 76-year-old GP who had spent decades caring for patients in a small town in southeast Iowa. Semi-retired, he still saw patients a few days a week, but his real passion was storytelling.

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Rub Some Gel on It? Alternative NSAIDs for Acute Low Back Pain

Acute low back pain is one of the most common reasons patients present to the emergency department. Yet, when it comes to evidence-based management, our approaches often feel like “dealer’s choice.”  We know NSAIDs are better than muscle relaxers and opioids, but what about topical options?

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New Year, New Look—But the Same Hippo You Know and Love

At Hippo Education, our mission has always been simple: 

Empower the people of medicine to learn, grow, and thrive through education and community.

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Tech in Medicine: Are Smartwatches Changing the Way We Practice?

Smartwatches and other wearable fitness trackers are everywhere—and they’re doing way more than counting steps. These devices now track heart rate variability (HRV), flag irregular heart rhythms, and even record single-lead ECGs. Cool, right? But what happens when a patient walks in with their wrist buzzing and a bunch of data they want us to interpret? Let’s dive into the world of wearables and what they mean for us as healthcare...

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Necessary or Nonsense: Screening for the Suicidal Patient Pt. 2

Across a wide variety of practice environments, the concept of medically screening a patient who presents with suicidal ideation is often a source of friction between the emergency department and psychiatry. In theory, a medical screening exam would help the ED team identify acute medical conditions in patients with co-existing psychiatric pathology, but in reality, local guidelines and protocols can lead to extensive and often unnecessary...

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Necessary or Nonsense: Screening for the Suicidal Patient

Suicide ranks as the 11th leading cause of death in the United States, claiming 48,183 lives in 2021 alone—equivalent to one life lost every 11 minutes. For us, as clinicians, suicide prevention starts in our emergency department, where at-risk individuals often seek help in the days or weeks leading up to a suicide attempt. Unfortunately, in the ED, the opportunity to screen for suicide risk can be overlooked due to high patient values,...

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Acute Mountain Sickness

The headache felt like my skull was splitting in half.

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Time Management Pearls for Clinicians: Optimizing Efficiency

As healthcare professionals, our days are filled with many tasks, such as patient encounters, documentation, and administrative work, not to mention keeping track of a household or family. Time management becomes crucial in ensuring that we provide quality care while maintaining our well-being. In this blog, we'll explore some valuable pearls for efficient clinical time management, and I’ll note some tips that have worked well for me.

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