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!
Enhancing wellness: improving work efficiency may be the key
As we delve deeper into wellness week, an important consideration many of us often have is the time we have available to us. Our personal and professional lives are often so chaotic, it is easy to find excuses not to make time for wellness. Here, we will examine some...
#Blessed: Gratitude check
At the beginning of every New Year, many people express their gratitude for those who have positively impacted them in the past year. However, just like New Year's resolutions, these emotions of gratitude quickly seem to fade. As January moves forward we tend to...
How to diagnose your own wellness?
The Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Ottawa has a clear dedication to wellness, demonstrated by the creation of a Director of Wellness position for our academic group. Although the learning curve has been steep, one thing has quickly become clear:...
Welcome to EM Ottawa’s Wellness Week!
In January 2017, a group of residents at CAEP and ACEP put together an Emergency Medicine (EM) Wellness week. We think this was a fantastic initiative that covered the importance of physical and spiritual health, and how to stay well in our challenging working...
Industrial Engineering & Emergency Department Flow
In this post, we'll explore the many exciting applications that concepts borrowed from industrial engineering can have on ED efficiency and workflow. To help build a framework for further discussion, we will define industrial engineering, describe the ED as a complex...
Isopropyl Alcohol Nasal Inhalation for Nausea in the Emergency Department: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Journal Club Summary Methodology Score: 3/5 Usefulness Score: 2.5/5 Question and Methods: This tertiary-care centre, placebo controlled RCT examined whether nasally inhaling isopropyl alcohol provides better nausea relief than normal saline. Findings: At 10 mins,...
Where is the Love? Intimate Partner Violence in the Emergency Department
Intimate partner violence is prevalent worldwide and has a significant economic impact on our healthcare system. This post will discuss: Intimate Partner Violence statistics globally, in Canada, and in Ontario The economic impact of intimate partner violence cases in...
Oxygen Therapy in Suspected Acute Myocardial Infarction
Journal Club Summary Hofmann R, et al. N Engl J Med. 2017 Sep 28;377(13):1240-1249. Methodology Score: 4/5 Usefulness Score: 4/5 Question and Methods: This large, registry-based RCT evaluated the effect of oxygen on patient-centered clinical outcomes...
Fun with Bubbles: Dysbarism and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Recreational scuba diving is becoming more and more popular with the number of scuba divers approaching 9 million in the USA alone. With this interest comes an increasing number of diving related incidents. What is Decompression sickness? Even though it was first...
Opening the Book: Pelvic Trauma in the ED
Unstable pelvic fractures have high mortality rates, particularly with patients who are hemodynamically unstable, due to difficulty in achieving hemostasis and other associated injuries. At present, there is no standard guideline that has been published and...