Episodes

March 21, 2026

SGEM#506: Aww I’m Itchy…and I need a Second Generation Antihistamine

Reference: Wong KH, et al. Improving Use of Oral Antihistamines in a Children’s Hospital. Pediatrics. Feb 2026; Date: March 15, 2026 Dr. Stephanie Kubala Guest Skeptic: Dr. Stephanie Kubala is an attending physician in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is double board-certified in both pediatrics and allergy and immunology. Case: A 5-year-old girl is brought in by her parents for an itchy rash. Her symptoms started last night. The parent reports a...
March 14, 2026

SGEM#505: Close Enough for (ARF) Acute Respiratory Failure (HFNO vs NIV)

Date: March 11, 2026 Reference: RENOVATE Investigators and the BRICNet Authors; High-Flow Nasal Oxygen vs Noninvasive Ventilation in Patients With Acute Respiratory Failure: The RENOVATE Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA March 2025 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Rory Spiegel is an emergency medicine and critical care physician known for his work in evidence-based medicine and critical care. He is widely recognized for translating emerging research into practical bedside insights through lectures, writing, and...
March 7, 2026

SGEM Xtra: It’s My Life – DPhil in Oxford

Date: March 5, 2026 Today, we’re not in the studio. We’re not in Canada. We’re not even in North America. We are in Oxford. And not just Oxford, we are recording this SGEM Xtra in a pub. This will be the second-ever SGEM PUBcast. We need to travel back in time to 2012 for the first PUBcast. That happened when I came to Oxford for a mini-fellowship at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) on how to teach evidence-based medicine (SGEM#6). I had no idea that experience would change my profe...
Feb. 28, 2026

SGEM Xtra: You say you want a revolution – well you know – Against the Grain: Defiant Giants Who Changed the World

Date: February 26, 2026 Guest Skeptic: Terry O’Reilly is the host of the long-running and popular podcast Under the Influence. He is also an acclaimed storyteller and book writer. However, Terry is not just some radio host talking about marketing; he was an adman on the front lines, working in the trenches for 35 years in the advertising industry. I’ve been a listener of Under the Influence for a long time, and it’s helped me think about how we communicate with emergency clinicians and how we ma...
Feb. 21, 2026

SGEM#504: Home Where I Wanted to Go After Anaphylaxis

Reference: . Timing of repeat epinephrine to inform paediatric anaphylaxis observation periods: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. July 2025 Dr. Kammeron Brissett Guest Skeptic: Dr. Kammeron Brissett is a pediatric emergency medicine fellow at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. She completed her pediatrics residency and a chief year at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. Her interests include injury prevention, social determinants ...
Feb. 14, 2026

SGEM#503: Waiting is the Hardest Part – Factors Associated with ED LOS

Date: February 13, 2026 Reference: Lang et al. Factors associated with emergency department length of stay in Alberta: a study of patient-, visit-, and facility-level factors using administrative health data. CJEM. 2026 Jan 29. Guest Skeptic: Dr. Paul Parks is an emergency physician from Medicine Hat, Alberta. He has been the President of the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) Section of Emergency Medicine for many years, the AMA Board of Directors for 9 years, and the Previous President of the A...
Feb. 7, 2026

SGEM#502: Playing with the Queen of Hearts – AI, Is It Very Smart (for ECG Interpretation)?

Date: January 3, 2026 Reference: Shroyer et al. Accuracy of cath lab activation decisions for STEMI-equivalent and mimic ECGs: Physicians vs. AI (Queen of Hearts by PMcardio). Am J Emerg Med. 2025 Nov. Guest Skeptic: Dr. Amal Mattu has been on the faculty at the University of Maryland since 1996. He has developed an academic niche in emergency cardiology and electrocardiography, and he also enjoys teaching and writing on other topics, including emergency geriatrics, faculty development, and risk...
Jan. 31, 2026

SGEM Xtra: Machines – Or Back to Human

Date: January 6, 2026 Guest Skeptic: Darren McKee is an author and speaker. He has served as a senior policy advisor and policy analyst for over 17 years. Darren hosts the international award-winning podcast, The Reality Check. He is also the author of an excellent, thought-provoking book called Uncontrollable: The Threat of Artificial Superintelligence and the Race to Save the World (2023). The book lays out what AI is, why advanced systems could pose real risks, and what individuals and instit...
Jan. 24, 2026

SGEM#501: Here it Goes Again – Another Clinical Decision Rule for Febrile Infants 61-90 Days

Reference: Aronson PL, et al. Prediction Rule to Identify Febrile Infants 61–90 Days at Low Risk for Invasive Bacterial Infections. Pediatrics. September 2025 Date: January 6, 2026 Dr. Jillian Nickerson Guest Skeptic: Dr. Jillian Nickerson is a pediatric emergency medicine attending at Children’s National Hospital and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC. Prior to completing her PEM f...
Jan. 17, 2026

SGEM#500: Don’t You Want Me – Etomidate or Ketamine for Induction of Critically Ill Patients

Date: January 17, 2026 Reference: Casey et al. RSI Investigators and the Pragmatic Critical Care Research Group. Ketamine or Etomidate for Tracheal Intubation of Critically Ill Adults. NEJM. 2025 Dec Guest Skeptic: Dr. Scott Weingart is an ED Intensivist from New York. He did fellowships in Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, and ECMO. Scott is best known for talking to himself about Resuscitation and Critical Care on the podcast EMCrit, which has been downloaded more than 50 million times. Scott an...
Jan. 10, 2026

SGEM Xtra: Hit Me with Your Best Block – 2025 AHS ED Migraine Guidelines

Date: January 5, 2026 Reference: Robblee et al. 2025 guideline update to acute treatment of migraine for adults in the emergency department: The American Headache Society evidence assessment of parenteral pharmacotherapies. Headache 2025 Dec Happy New Year, SGEMers! What better way to start 2026 than with an SGEM Xtra about migraine headaches? We were originally scheduled to record this episode in December, but circumstances changed. This is another SGEM Xtra and not the typical structured criti...
Jan. 3, 2026

SGEM#499: Under Pressure – To Start Antihypertensives in Hypertensive ED Patients at Discharge

Date: December 23, 2025 Reference: Todd et al. Antihypertensive prescription is associated with improved 30-day outcomes for discharged hypertensive emergency department patients. J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open. 2024 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Mike Pallaci is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University and a Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. He currently serves as Core Faculty for the USACS EM Residency at Su...
Dec. 27, 2025

SGEM#498: Andromeda – Cap Refill Time for Personalized Sepsis Treatment

Date: November 27, 2025 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Justin Morgenstern is an emergency physician and the creator of the #FOAMed project called www.First10EM.com Case: You are looking after a 65-year-old man who appears to be in septic shock. He presented after five days of fever and cough, and is now severely lethargic and hypotensive on arrival. You give him antibiotics and IV fluids immediately, but an hour later, his lactate comes back at 5, and you need to start norepinephrine to keep his MAP above 6...
Dec. 20, 2025

SGEM#497: We Could be Heroes – Just with a Little Help from Batman

Date: Dec 17, 2025 Reference: Pagnini F, et al. Unexpected events and prosocial behavior: the Batman effect. npj Mental Health Research. November 2025 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Dennis Ren is a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children’s National in Washington, DC. You may also know him as the host of SGEM Peds. Case: It’s been a dark, cold day in Gotham City. You’re finally on the metro heading home after a long shift. The train is packed, and you’re standing, crammed uncomfortably among all t...
Dec. 13, 2025

SGEM#496: Hangin’ Tough after a Nerve Block for Pediatric Femur Fractures

Reference: Binder ZW et al. “Ultrasound-Guided Nerve Block for Pediatric Femur Fractures in the Emergency Department: A Prospective Multi-Center Study.” Academic Emergency Medicine, 2025. Date: November 24, 2025 Dr. Lauren Westafer Guest Skeptic: Dr. Lauren Westafer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Baystate. She is the co-founder of FOAMcast and a researcher in pulmonary embolism and implementation science. Dr. W...
Dec. 6, 2025

SGEM#495: Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies – Reporting of Noninferiority Margins on ClinicalTrials.gov.

Date: December 4, 2025 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Jestin Carlson – Long-time listener, second-time guest. Reference: Reinaud et al. Reporting of Noninferiority Margins on ClinicalTrials.gov: A Systematic Review. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 Case: You are working with a resident who asks you about a new thrombolytic they heard about on the SGEM for acute ischemic stroke. This new treatment was found not to be inferior to the existing thrombolytic, but they are not sure how the paper reached that conclusion. You ...
Nov. 29, 2025

SGEM#494: Another day for you and me in pain – Chronic Abdominal Pain and ED visits

Date: November 26, 2025 Reference: Ray et al. Emergency Department Visit Frequency Among Adults with Chronic Abdominal Pain: Findings From the 2023 US National Health Interview Survey. AEM November 2025. Guest Skeptic: Dr. Kirsty Challen is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine in the UK and an evidence-based medicine advocate. She's a seasoned knowledge translator with her PaperinaPic infographics. Case: You are mid-shift in what feels like the never-ending winter of emergency medicine, and you he...
Nov. 22, 2025

SGEM#493: You Can’t Hold Me Down with Spinal Motion Restrictions

Date: November 8, 2025 Reference: Millin M, et al., Prehospital Trauma Compendium: Prehospital Management of Spinal Cord Injuries – A NAEMSP Comprehensive Review and Analysis of the Literature, Prehospital Emergency Care, Aug 2025. Guest Skeptic: Clay Odell, BSN, NRP, RN, is a Paramedic Firefighter with Newport (NH) Fire-EMS. He is a past Chief of the NH Bureau of Emergency Medical Services. Previous positions he held are Trauma System Coordinator for the State of NH, Executive Director of Upper...
Nov. 15, 2025

SGEM#492: Give Blood – To Anemic Patients with Acute Brain Injuries

Date: November 12, 2025 Reference: Taccone et al. Restrictive vs Liberal Transfusion Strategy in Patients With Acute Brain Injury The TRAIN Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2024 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Alex Weiler is an Emergency Department staff physician in the Peterborough Regional Health Centre and is an associate professor with Queen's University Department of Family Medicine. This podcast was recorded live at the Kawartha EM Conference in beautiful Peterborough, Ontario. Case: A 48-year-old woma...
Nov. 8, 2025

SGEM Xtra: Talkin’ Bout a Revolution…Training Health Communicators

Date: October 17, 2025 Dr. Kristen Panthagani Guest Skeptic: Dr. Kristen Panthagani is an emergency medicine resident and Yale Emergency Scholar at Yale New Haven Hospital. She’s a physician-scientist, having completed her MD/PhD at Baylor College of Medicine. She’s also well known as a science communicator, creator of You Can Know Things which helps explain science in a way everybody can understand, with an emphasis on addressing health rumors and explaining evidence-based medicine. This SGEM X...
Nov. 1, 2025

SGEM#491: Prevalence of violence against health care workers among agitated patients in an urban emergency department

Date: October 30, 2025 Reference: Boes et al. Prevalence of violence against health care workers among agitated patients in an urban emergency department. October 2025 AEM Guest Skeptic: Dr. Suchismita Datta. She is an Assistant Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the NYU Grossman Long Island Hospital Campus. Case: It's 7:34 pm. You just took a sip of your portable espresso machine coffee from your favourite Batman cup. It's been 34 minutes into your Tue...
Oct. 25, 2025

SGEM#490: These (Removable) Boots are Made for Walking

Reference: Boutin A, et al. Removable Boot vs Casting of Toddler’s Fractures: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Pediatr. Published April 2025. Date: July 23, 2025 Dr. Andrew Tagg Guest Skeptic: Dr. Andrew (Andy) Tagg is an Emergency Physician with a special interest in education and lifelong learning. He is the co-founder and website lead of Don’t Forget the Bubbles (DFTB). Case: A two-year-old boy presents to your pediatric emergency department (ED) with a limp and refusal to bear weight. His p...
Oct. 18, 2025

SGEM#489: Smooth Muscle Relaxator – But does Magnesium Work for Renal Colic?

Date: October 10, 2025 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Sergey Motov is an Emergency Physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine, Maimonides Medical Center in New York City. He is also one of the world’s leading researchers on pain management in the emergency department. Case: A 37-year-old man presents to the emergency department (ED) with severe right-sided flank pain. The pain started about eight hours ago as a vague discomfort in his right flank, but it has gotten progressively worse and now is radi...
Oct. 11, 2025

SGEM#488: It’s Just a Minor Stroke – Should We Still Lyse?

Date: October 3, 2025 Reference: Doheim et al. Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials on IV Thrombolysis in Patients With Minor Acute Ischemic Stroke. Neurology 2025 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Casey Parker is a Rural Generalist, Evidence-based medicine enthusiast and Ultrasound Nerd. This episode was recorded live, in beautiful Broome, Australia, at the Spring Seminar on Emergency Medicine (SSEM 2025). You can get copies of the slides used in the presentation at this LINK. You can also watch the ...