by Mathieu McKinnon | Mar 26, 2026 | Anesthesiology, Critical Care, Featured, Grand Round Summaries, Resuscitation, Trauma
Blood pressure management in trauma is one of the most deceptively complex decisions we make in the emergency department. In the first hour of resuscitation, competing physiologic priorities collide: permissive hypotension may protect clot integrity in hemorrhagic...
by Mejbel Alazemi | Mar 12, 2026 | Critical Care, Featured, Grand Round Summaries, Infectious Disease, Resuscitation
Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is about using the right antibiotic, only when needed, and choosing the appropriate dose, route, and duration. The goal is to treat infections effectively while reducing harm, both to the individual and to the healthcare system. It’s...
by Shahbaz Syed | Jan 5, 2026 | Critical Care, Featured, Grand Round Summaries, Resuscitation
This year on the EMOttawa Blog, our team continued to focus on clinically grounded, practical, and thoughtful emergency medicine scholarship. From procedures and decision rules to reflection and wellness, our goal has remained simple: help Emergency Physicians deliver...
by Prince Asare-Agbo | Nov 6, 2025 | Critical Care, Featured, Grand Round Summaries, Hematology, Resuscitation
You can find Part 1 on Hemophilia here. For Part 2, we’ll be focusing on hemolytic anemias and thrombotic microangiopathies, or TMAs for short. Defined simply, hemolytic anemia is the destruction of red blood cells before their normal 120-day lifespan. It’s a broad...
by Prince Asare-Agbo | Oct 30, 2025 | Critical Care, Featured, Grand Round Summaries, Hematology, Resuscitation
Blood tests (especially complete blood counts and coagulation markers) are some of the most commonly ordered investigations in both the emergency department and the hospital at large. It’s important for us as emergency physicians to have an excellent understanding of...
by Lucy Karp | Aug 7, 2025 | Commentary, Critical Care, Grand Round Summaries, Resuscitation
While the term ‘God Squad’ reflects a real committee from the 1960s, we use it here critically to examine the risks of unchecked decision-making power in emergency care. This is a photo of the Admissions and Policy Committee of the Seattle Artificial Kidney Centre,...
by Jessica Tat | Jul 31, 2025 | Critical Care, Featured, Grand Round Summaries, Infectious Disease, Resuscitation, Tropical Medicine
Global travel has surged back in full force following the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing with it an important clinical consideration for emergency physicians—evaluating febrile patients with recent travel history. Despite the growing need, many emergency clinicians still...
by James Gilbertson | Mar 13, 2025 | Featured, Grand Round Summaries, Radiology, Resuscitation, Ultrasound
How did ultrasound become a cornerstone of emergency medicine? What ultrasound skills should an emergency physician in Canada possess? And with the rise of handheld devices and AI-driven diagnostics, where is PoCUS in emergency medicine headed? Here, we are going to...
by Shane Baistrocchi | Feb 13, 2025 | Airway, Anesthesiology, Critical Care, Featured, Grand Round Summaries, Resuscitation
Procedural sedation (PS) is a cornerstone of Emergency Medicine, frequently employed in the Emergency Department (ED) to facilitate painful or anxiety-provoking procedures while ensuring patient comfort. The goal is to achieve optimal sedation while allowing for rapid...
by Rebecca Seliga, Hans Rosenberg, Christian Vaillancourt | Jan 13, 2025 | cardiac arrest, Cardiology, Critical Care, Journal Club, Resuscitation
Methodology: 4/5 Usefulness: 4/5 Vallentin MF, et al. N Engl J Med. 2024 Oct 31. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2407616. Editorial: The Way to a Patient’s Heart – Vascular Access in Cardiac Arrest Question and Methods: This RCT compared IO vs. IV vascular access in...
