5 Awesome Medical Apps You Probably Didn’t Know About

Medical Apps

It has often been said that the smartest people don’t know everything, they simply know how to access the information they need, when they need it.  Check out these 5 outstanding medical apps that make my life easier, and will probably do the same for you. Continue reading “5 Awesome Medical Apps You Probably Didn’t Know About”

Intracranial Hemorrhage Pearls

Intracranial

Cushing’s triad, which consists of widening pulse pressure, decreasing pulse, and abnormal (often Cheyne-Stokes) respirations, is usually a significant indication of increased intracranial pressure.  Unfortunately, this is usually a very late sign, and irreversible damage may have already been done. Continue reading “Intracranial Hemorrhage Pearls”

Reading the MAP without a compass.

Mean Arterial Pressure

Knowing your patient’s Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) is far more important than their blood pressure.  This is because MAP represents the average arterial pressure during an entire cardiac cycle.  Here’s some MAP basics to get your neurons firing! Continue reading “Reading the MAP without a compass.”

Over-worried parents, or a potentially fatal pediatric illness?

Croup

When presented with a young child who does not appear particularly sick, it can be tempting to assume that the parents are just being over cautious.  Kids are tough, though, and sometimes identifying a pathology, especially early on, can require a little more legwork than in an adult patient.  Croup is a particularly dangerous childhood illness, and our little patients deserve this extra legwork. Continue reading “Over-worried parents, or a potentially fatal pediatric illness?”

Is your patient in occult shock?

Shock Index

An important thing to remember when assessing your patients, is that low blood pressure is not shock.  On that same token, high blood pressure does not rule out shock.  I’m sure that everyone has probably heard that tachycardia may be one of the first indicators of shock… but what else can tell us?  Enter the shock index. Continue reading “Is your patient in occult shock?”

Post Number Zero

Post Number Zero

Well this is it, Post Number Zero! The post that will start a revolution in FOAMed!  Never heard of FOAMed a.k.a. FOAM?  Well that stands for Free Open Access Medical Education, and while it’s totally awesome, there just isn’t enough content out there geared toward pre-hospital providers.  Ditch Doc EM plans to change all of that with delicious bite sized morsels of tips, tricks, and cool cases to keep your game top notch.  So stay tuned for Post #1, coming soon! Go to Home Page