We are excited to introduce the Sixth edition of The Ottawa Handbook of Emergency Medicine. Your bedside guide for approaches to various Emergency Medicine presentations.
Highlights of the Sixth edition include the addition of: Oncologic emergencies, approach to the pregnant patient, geriatrics and more!
How to Tell a Story: Impactful Medical Talks
Stories are captivating and they’re the best way to convey … well anything really. Through this blogpost, we’ll see that the current formats of delivering talks, medical talks especially, are at best a tad outdated and at worst borderline ineffective, and I hope that...
Point of Care Ultrasound Archiving Requirements
Canadian national guidelines recommend Point of Care Ultrasound (PoCUS) image archiving for documentation, and to facilitate quality improvement and assurance - key components of driving great patient-centred care with ultrasound. The CAEP Emergency Ultrasound...
Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine
Methodology: 4/5 Usefulness: 4.5/5 Polack FP, et al. N Engl J Med. 2020 Dec 31;383(27):2603-2615. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2034577. Epub 2020 Dec 10. Editorial: SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination - An Ounce (Actually, Much Less) of Prevention. Question/methods: Multinational,...
Navigating ED Patient Complaints
Patient complaints are common in medicine. Emergency medicine (EM) in particular has some of the highest numbers of complaints, just behind obstetrics and surgery. Almost all of you reading this have probably been subject to some sort of complaint, and if it hasn't...
Delayed Antibiotic Prescription for Children With Respiratory Infections: A Randomized Trial
Methodology: 3/5 Usefulness: 1/5 Mas-Dalmau G, et al. Pediatrics. 2021 Mar;147(3):e20201323. doi: 10.1542/peds.2020-1323. Question and Methods: This RCT assessed effectiveness and safety of delayed (DAP), immediate (IAP) and no antibiotic prescription (NAP) in...
Back to Black: A Review of Activated Charcoal
In this blog post, Dr. Alexandra Hamelin weighs in on many of the controversies surrounding activated charcoal (AC), and provides a practical approach for its use in overdose patients in the emergency department. Specifically: The dosing of AC The time window...
A simplified decision rule to rule out deep vein thrombosis using clinical assessment and D-dimer
Methodology: 3.5/5 Usefulness: 2/5 Xu K, et al. J Thromb Haemost. 2021 Apr 8. doi: 10.1111/jth.15337. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33834620. Question and methods: The authors sought to develop a new, simplified clinical decision rule to exclude DVT using individual...
Dr. Oronhyatekha (“Dr. O”), A National Historical Person
Dr. Oronhyatekha, also known by his baptismal name of Peter Martin, was born August 10, 1841 into the Mohawk nation at the Six Nations of Grand River near what is today Brantford, Ontario. He went to elementary school in a one-room schoolhouse, which was administered...
Profile: Dr. Jason McVicar
Dr. Jason McVicar was born in the Northwest Territories and is of French Metis descent. He spent part of his childhood in the Northwest Territories, but moved to Manitoba, where most of his family was (and many remain), when his father was transferred there for his...
Edith Monture: Canada’s first Indigenous Nurse
Edith Monture (nee Anderson) was born on April 10, 1890 on the Six Nations Reserve (near Brantford, Ontario), a member of the Mohawk tribe. She grew up on reserve as the youngest of eight children. Unlike many Indigenous children of her day, she received a complete...
