Episodes

Reference: Drysdale SB et al. Nirsevimab for Prevention of Hospitalizations due to RSV in Infants. N Engl J Med. 2023 Date: March 29, 2024 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Michael Cosimini is a pediatrician in Portland Oregon. He is the designer of Empiric Game, a medical editor and contributor to Pediatrics Reviews and Perspectives (PedsRAP) and the digital media editor at Academic Pediatrics. He is passionate about podcasting and serious games for medical education. Dr. Michael Cosimini Case: A 4-month-old ...

Reference: Harrison et al. Mortality in adolescents and young adults following a first presentation to the emergency department for alcohol. AEM March 2024. Date: March 27, 2024 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Kirsty Challen is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals. Case: It’s a Friday evening at the end of the academic year in the Paediatric Emergency Department (ED) and you are with the parents of a 15-year-old girl who has been brought in acutely intoxicated from an unofficia...

Reference: Marx et al. Simple Aspiration versus Drainage for Complete Pneumothorax: A Randomized Noninferiority Trial. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2023 Date: March 22, 2024 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Richard Malthaner holds the prestigious position of Chair/Head of the Division of Thoracic Surgery and serves as the Director of the Thoracic Robotic Program at Western University's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. Dr. Malthaner currently serves as the Vice President of the Canadian Association of ...

Date: March 16, 2024 This is an SGEM Xtra episode. Yes, that is two back-to-back SGEM Xtra episodes. The critical appraisal that was lined up for this week's episode got delayed due to some scheduling problems with clinical responsibilities. You can access all the slides for this episode from this LINK and see the presentation on YouTube. This episode is from a talk I gave a few years ago on social media for knowledge translation. How this technology could make the world a better place. I’ve com...

Date: March 6, 2024 This is an SGEM Xtra created from a lecture I gave for the Rural Ontario Medical Program (ROMP) ICE Camp Retreat in Collingwood, Ontario last month. ROMP helps Ontario medical students & residents arrange core & elective rotations in rural Ontario. An old friend, Dr. Matt De Stefano invited me to give a lecture to the PGY-3 Emergency Medicine Residents. Matt said it could be a talk on anything so I decided to create a new presentation called “A Philosophy of Emergency Medicin...

Reference: Gibbons et al. The sonographic protocol for the emergent evaluation of aortic dissections (SPEED protocol): A multicenter, prospective, observational study. AEM February 2024. Date: February 28, 2024 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Neil Dasgupta is an emergency medicine physician and ED intensivist from Long Island, NY. He is the Vice Chair of the Emergency Department at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, NY, the safety net hospital for Nassau County. Case: A 59-year-old man walks in...

Reference: Li, T., & Gal, D. (2023). Consumers prefer natural medicines more when treating psychological than physical conditions. Journal of Consumer Psychology 2023, Date: February 23, 2024 Guest Skeptic: Ethan Milne is a Marketing PhD student at the Ivey Business School (Western University). He researches how moral outrage and status-seeking personalities motivate social media aggression, and how retribution can motivate consumer donations. Case: A 20-year-old male presents to the emergency d...

Reference: McLatchie et al and DAShED investigators. Diagnosis of Acute Aortic Syndrome in the Emergency Department (DAShED) study: an observational cohort study of people attending the emergency department with symptoms consistent with acute aortic syndrome. EMJ Nov 2023. Date: February 11, 2024 Guest Skeptic: Nirdosh Ashok Kumar, Emergency Medicine Specialist – Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. Case: A 66-year-old female with a history of smoking, hypertension, and type-2 diabet...

Reference: Curry SD, et al. Systematic Review of CT Angiography in Guiding Management in Pediatric Oropharyngeal Trauma. Laryngoscope. March 2023 Date: January 30, 2024 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Alexandra (Ali) Espinel is an Associate professor of pediatrics and otolaryngology at Children’s National Hospital and George Washington University. She is also the director of the Pediatric Otolaryngology Fellowship at Children’s National Hospital. Case: You’re working the morning shift in the emergency depart...

Reference: Wilkinson-Stokes M, Betson J, Sawyer S. Adverse events from nitrate administration during right ventricular myocardial infarction: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Emerg Med J. February 2023 Date: January 24, 2024 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Rupinder Sahsi is a fellow EBM enthusiast with academic appointments at McMaster University and Wright State University who works as an emergency physician in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He is also an assistant medical director for EMS at th...

Reference: Zaoutis T, et al. Short-course Therapy for Urinary Tract Infections in Children: the SCOUT randomized clinical trial. JAMA Pediatr. Aug 2023 Date: October 30, 2023 Dr. Ellie Hill Guest Skeptic: Dr. Ellie Hill is a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Her research interests include improving the diagnosi...

Reference: Snyder BD, Van Dyke MR, Walker RG, et al. Association of small adult ventilation bags with return of spontaneous circulation in out of hospital cardiac arrest. Resuscitation 2023. Date: January 11, 2024 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Chris Root is an EMS fellow in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque, NM. He is also a flight physician with UNM’s aeromedical service, Lifeguard Air Emergency Services. Prior to earning his MD, he ...

Reference: Remick KE, et al. National Assessment of Pediatric Readiness of US Emergency Departments during the Covid-19 Pandemic. JAMA Netw Open. July 2023 Date: Dec 11, 2023 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Rachel Hatcliffe is a pediatric emergency medicine attending at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC. Her research focuses on prehospital care of children with anaphylaxis. Guest Authors: Dr. Kate Remick Dr. Kate Remick is a pediatric emergency medicine physician and Assistant Professor of Pedia...

Reference: Roussel et al. Overnight stay in the emergency department and mortality in older patients, JAMA Intern Med 2023 Date: December 18, 2023 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Chris Carpenter, Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine at Mayo Clinic. Case: An 85-year-old patient (Ms. McG) presents to your emergency department (ED) after being found by family on the ground at her independent living facility. Her family was concerned because she has had multiple recent falls, and she wasn’t answering the telephone t...

Date: December 12, 2023 Reference: OCFP News. More Than Four Million Ontarians Will Be Without a Family Doctor by 2026. Nov 7, 2023 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Mahaleh Mekalai Kumanan attended Dalhousie University for her undergraduate studies, Master of Health Administration degree and medical school before completing her residency at the University of Western Ontario. She is currently the President of the Ontario College of Family Medicine (OCFP). This is an SGEM Xtra. I had the opportunity to intervie...

Reference: Punches et al. Patient Perceptions of Microaggressions and Discrimination Towards Patients During Emergency Department Care. AEM Dec 2023 Date: December 14, 2023 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. Case: A 57-year-old Chinese woman presents to the emergency department (ED) with chest pain. She speaks some Englis...

Date: November 20, 2023 Reference: Jones et al. Time to reflect on open-label placebos and their value for clinical practice. PAIN October 2023 Caitlin Jones PhD Guest Skeptic: Dr. Caitlin Jones is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Sydney University’s institute for Musculoskeletal Health. Her research evaluates the benefits and harms of treatments for musculoskeletal conditions with a particular interest in high-risk treatment options such as opioid medicines and spinal cord stimulators for p...

Reference: Shaikh N, et al. Identifying children likely to benefit from antibiotics for acute sinusitis: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA July 2023 Date: October 17, 2023 Dr. Alasdair Munro Guest Skeptic: Dr. Alasdair Munro is a clinical research fellow specializing in pediatric infectious disease at the University of Southampton. He is currently involved with clinical trials of vaccines and antibiotics. Case: A 4-year-old girl presents to your emergency department (ED) with fever and nasal dra...

Date: November 22, 2023 Reference: Stopyra et al. Delayed First Medical Contact to Reperfusion Time Increases Mortality in Rural EMS Patients with STEMI. AEM November 2023. 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 and a pulmonary embolism and implementation science researcher. Dr. Westafer serves as the Social Media Editor and a research methodol...

Date: November 2, 2023 Reference: Coventry et al. Which clinical features best predict occult scaphoid fractures? A systematic review of diagnostic test accuracy studies. Emerg Med J. Aug 2023 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Matt Schmitz is an Orthopaedic Surgeon who sub-specializes in adolescent sports and hip preservation. He will soon be transitioning out of the US military after a 20-year career in the Air Force and is soon to be Clinical Professor of Orthopaedics at UC San Diego. DISCLAIMER: THE VIEWS A...

Reference: Roland D, Munro A. Time for paediatrics to screen out sepsis “screening.” BMJ. June 2023 Date: Sept 12, 2023 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Damian Roland is a Consultant at the University of Leicester NHS Trust and Honorary Professor for the University of Leicester’s SAPPHIRE group. He specializes in Paediatric Emergency Medicine and is a passionate believer and advocate of FOAMed. Damian is also part of the Don’t Forget the Bubbles Team. Dr. Damian Roland Background: For anyone who has ever take...

Date: October 26, 2023 Reference: Jones et al. Opioid analgesia for acute low back pain and neck pain (the OPAL trial): a randomised placebo-controlled trial placebo-controlled trial. Lancet July 2023 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, specifically the use of ketamine. His twitter handle is @P...

Date: October 20, 2023 Reference: Cai et al. Implementation of a Clinical Management Tool for Spinal Epidural Abscess Early Diagnosis. AEM October 2023. Guest Skeptic: Dr. Kirsty Challen is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals. Case: You are in your group meeting and have heard about a case at a nearby emergency department (ED) where the diagnosis of a spinal epidural abscess was delayed, and a substantial settlement has been made out of court. Your group director ...

Reference: Brennan L et al. Time to change the reference ranges of children’s physiological observations in emergency care? A prospective study. J Paediatr Child Health. March 2023 Date: July 12th, 2023 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Vicki Currie is a paediatric emergency medicine registrar in the West Midlands in the United Kingdom. She is also a member of the Don’t’ Forget the Bubbles team where she serves as the editor for the monthly research round up, Bubble WRAP. Dr, Vicki Currie Case: A 5-year-old bo...