Recent content by jrm818

Do you speak to people like this in real life? I don't think I've been anything but polite, and I expect the same from you, although you are an anonymous set of fingers somewhere in the internet. Enjoy your discussion.

But that assumes that a nonrandomized retrospective trial with data derived from billing codes is sufficient to conclude that there is a causal link between ALS care and poor outcomes in the first place. I think you will find that conventional wisdom, especially among clinicians, is that such a...

What problem? This is the crux of the issue; saying they found a "problem" requires accepting that ALS care caused worse outcomes; and that requires accepting that the methodology used here says anything about causality. If all the paper did is identify an association between ALS care and...

Again, unfortunately this research is being spoken about as if it implies causality - by the lead author herself, posted on YouTube, with the Harvard emblem emblazoned on it. If this study were more closely tailored to a specific clinical scenario or intervention, it could indeed be question...

It's funny...I just got an e-mail that there's going to be a 40 minute round-table with the author at this years ACEP conference next Monday. I'm sorry I can't go.... On a careful re-read, the paper does indeed dance around implying causality. The author does really heavily suggest she is...

Except that the claim that pure statistical methods can tell us anything about causality is NOT all that well accepted. As far as I know, conventional scientific wisdom still suggests that it cannot. This topic actually seems fairly ill-suited to study using non-randomized study design, given...

If I'm seeing this right on my phone, I think(?) Tom might have been refering to the elevation in AvR, which can indicate proximal LAD or left main disease. One finding that might actually make a difference, because it suggests the treatment may be CABG rather than stenting. Oh, and another...

OP, You almost certainly did well. It sounds like you are beating yourself up about this, and understandably given how close to home it was. Don't worry about if you performed perfectly, or followed your protocol exactly. Calls like this are almost universally not-quite-by-the-book, given...

You aren't alone. To me, this was by far the most stressful thing about working in EMS (especially for the years before I had a GPS). Getting from the scene to the hospital is the hardest, since your alone and can't read a map. I can navigate very well with a map, but on my own in the driver...

Have never done this myself, and I realize you may not have a meconium aspirator, but for what it's worth: http://emcrit.org/blogpost/ett-as-suction-device/ And I have used just the suction tubing, but honestly I'm usually still somewhat underwhelmed with the success.

http://freeemergencytalks.net/ Emcrit Ercast Smartem Some of this is beyond medic usefulness, but still plenty of ems relevance

To tell you the truth I wasn't really sure when it came around, but I was pretty sure it's growing use in the emergency world is a relatively new development. It looks like vapotherm started making their machine in about 2000. I don't know if that qualifies as new or not, but medicine does...

Just a clarification (for others reading especially, as I suspect you knew this). the phrase "high flow nasal cannula" usually refers to the newfangled humidified thingamagig that will flow more like 60 LPM. I know that 15 LPM is "high flow" for a nasal cannula compared to the usual 2-4ish...

And really, the most important organ (or at least the most intolerant of ischemia, even for very short periods) is the one inside your skull. If they're awake, they're definitely perfusing their brain.

I've always wondered about this, especially now that I'm in a state where this sort of "keep them in the system" bypassing actually occurs. I was suprised the first time I saw it. It seems scuzzy to me. I have done this once, sort-of. We bypassed several hospitals with a transfer form...