by Shahbaz Syed | Nov 14, 2024 | Commentary, Featured, Toxicology
Urine drug (or toxicologic) screens are a fairly standard tool used in addictions, psychiatry and the Emergency Department (ED), often employed to detect substance use in patients presenting with altered mental status, trauma, psychiatric or abnormal behaviour. Yet,...
by Shahbaz Syed | Oct 24, 2024 | Airway, Anesthesiology, Commentary, Critical Care, Featured, Resuscitation
Precedex (dexmedetomidine) is an alpha-2 adrenergic agonist increasingly used in critical care environments for sedation and anxiolysis. It offers a unique profile of sedation without respiratory depression, making it an attractive option in various clinical...
by James Gilbertson, Paul Pageau | Oct 10, 2024 | Anesthesiology, Commentary, Procedural care, Radiology, Ultrasound
Ever tried injecting local anesthetic into the bottom of someone’s foot? If you have, you’ll understand the incredible pain and difficulty in trying to anesthetize this region. Fortunately, there’s a better way to anesthetize the plantar foot, and avoid getting kicked...
by James Gilbertson, Rajiv Thavanathan | Oct 10, 2024 | Commentary, OBGYN, Radiology, Ultrasound
We often talk about PoCUS for first-trimester bleeding. Is there an IUP? NDIUP? IDK? Yet one of the most common questions patients ask is; “Can you see the heartbeat?” While measuring fetal heart rate is not always our top priority, I’m here to convince you of the...
by Nate Murray, Eusang Ahn | Oct 3, 2024 | Commentary, Featured, Radiology, Ultrasound
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is often taught to answer binary questions, like, “Is there free fluid in the abdomen?” However, when we combine POCUS images with clinical documentation, we are telling a story — and every good story has a beginning,...
by Eusang Ahn | Sep 26, 2024 | Commentary, Critical Care, Featured, Neurology, pharmacology, Resuscitation
I wrote this piece because understanding diseases by framing them as high or low levels of dopamine, acetylcholine, glutamate, or GABA has significantly improved my grasp of their pathophysiology and treatment strategies. Too often, medicine is taught as isolated...
by James Gilbertson | Aug 1, 2024 | Commentary, Featured, Grand Round Summaries, Physician Wellness
Social media headlines and evolving literature have highlighted the abysmal life expectancy of emergency room doctors. For example, Dr. Ken Milne, the creator behind The Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine, recently shared this post on sobering life-expectancy data...
by Dr. Stephanie Lim-Reinders, Stephanie Davenport | May 2, 2024 | cheo, Commentary, Critical Care, Featured, Grand Round Summaries, Pediatrics, Toxicology
In the pursuit of holistic health and wellness, individuals often turn to naturopathy as a beacon of alternative medicine, seeking relief and healing outside the realm of conventional treatments. Yet, amidst the allure of natural remedies and lifestyle adjustments,...
by Eusang Ahn | Jan 4, 2024 | Commentary, Featured, Medical Education
What exactly is an EPA, really? EPAs, or Entrustable Professional Activities, are the basic building blocks of assessment within many models of Competency-Based Medical Education, such as Competency By Design. In theory, EPA assessments are supposed to serve as...
by Nicolas Chagnon | Nov 16, 2023 | Commentary, Featured
With our shorter, milder winters (no skating on the Rideau Canal this past year), and our warmer, drier summers (thick wildfire smoke blanketing Ottawa in June), along with accelerating extreme weather events; derechos, ice storms and tornados – it is clear that...
