April 18th, 2011 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Health Tips
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Wilderness medicine folks are often considered to be “gearheads.” That is, we love to try out new outdoor equipment, whether it is for our activities, search and rescue, or personal safety. Improvisation is important, but it’s better to have what you need, particularly if you can pack light and accomplish your mission without unnecessary bulk and weight. There are numerous suppliers of equipment online. From time to time, as I am made aware of these, I will let you know.
Rescue Essentials is a frequent exhibitor at wilderness medicine continuing medical education meetings, and so I have become familiar with their carried product lines.
Importantly, Rescue Essentials carries the complete product line for SAM
Medical Products, which include the SAM Splint series and BlistOBan blister
(prevention) bandages. The company sells equipment for persons who respond to outdoor medicine situations, tactical medics, search and rescue personnel, and wilderness emergency medical technicians.
As a reminder of what a layperson might need to consider carrying in order to be prepared to assist a person outdoors in need of medical attention, here is a list that appears in the 5th edition of Medicine for the Outdoors. From this list, one would select the desired items: Read more »
This post, Emergency Rescue Essentials: The Outdoor Gear You Need, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
April 16th, 2011 by Shadowfax in Health Tips, Opinion, Research
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There was an interesting study published this week in the journal Radiology:
Rising Use of CT in Child Visits to the Emergency Department in the United States, 1995–2008 (Abstract)
The results are not surprising to anyone who has been working in medicine in the US over the last fifteen years. Basically, in 1995, a kid visiting the ER had a 1.2% likelihood of getting a CT scan, and by 2008, that number was 5.9%.
I had written about this general phenomon not too long ago, in defense of the general increase of CT utilization in the ER, largely on the basis that CT is a better tool: it provides diagnoses in a rapid and timely manner, and excludes many potential life threats, saving lives and mitigating malpractice risk. That was largely relevant to the adult population, though, and kids are not, as they say, just little adults. The increase in scanning children is more dramatic, especially given the generally lower incidence of disease in kids compared to adults and the chonrically ill. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
April 15th, 2011 by Iltifat Husain, M.D. in News
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At iMedicalApps, we’re always wary of physician surveys that claim to predict mobile use. We even did a feature article highlighting how sampling bias could be inflating the numbers of many of these surveys.
With that said, Bulletin Healthcare just released a survey based on a large sample size of physicians, using the following methods:
The analysis, based on the reading habits of more than 550,000 healthcare providers, including more than 400,000 physicians who subscribe to Bulletin Healthcare’s daily email briefings, focused on mobile device usage between June 1, 2010 and February 28, 2011.
While the report went on to talk about the increased usage of mobile devices by physicians, with Apple continuing to dominate the market — the iPhone and iPad had a more than 90% share of physician use — we were more interested by the intriguing comparison of physician mobile use by speciality.
Their survey found that Emergency Medicine physicians and cardiologists were the highest users of mobile devices and content, while Pathologists and Oncologists were the lowest. Of note, the survey looked at specialists, not primary care. Emergency Medicine physicians had more than double the usage of mobile technology than Pathologists, 40% verse 16%. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
April 9th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Opinion
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I sometimes see men and women who come to the emergency department and tell me about their PTSD, caused by service in Iraq or Afghanistan. I believe some of them; others I doubt, since their PTSD seems directly connected to a desire for Percocet, Lortab, MS-Contin or other prescriptions for back pain. Sadly, the VA system does not lend itself to inquiry by outside physicians, so in many instances I am treating them in an information vacuum.
However, as I contemplate their allegations of PTSD, I wonder how many physicians and nurses from emergency departments have the disorder. I’m no psychiatrist, but it just seems probable that the years of cummulative stress, the years of sleeplessness and snap decisions, the untold shifts filled with unpredictable chaos, pain, threats, death and anxiety would add up to significant emotional turmoil for providers who work in that environment.
It is appropriate that we are attentive to the needs of those who serve in combat zones. And yet, they may spend only spend one or two years there. Granted, that can be terrible enough. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
April 6th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
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So I have a Droid. I purchased it in July, not long after taking my old flip-phone for an oceanic bath at Hilton Head, SC. I waffled for a long time. In fact, I almost purchased a Casio phone that was marketed as water and impact resistant. ‘Mil-spec,’ was the phrase used…a phrase which appeals to me as a one-time Air-Guard flight surgeon. What it meant to me was, ‘you can’t hurt it.’
Still, I was attracted by medical applications and the assorted other cool things a Droid can do. I mean, my old phone didn’t have a Magic 8 Ball, for crying out loud! More to the point, my old phone didn’t have Epocrates, or the Emergency Medicine Residents Association Guide to Antibiotic Therapy. It lacked a flashlight, an mp-3 player, a protractor and a scientific calculator. (It also weighed a fraction of my Droid, but that’s what belts are for). On my old phone, I couldn’t have taken a photo of an ECG, turned it into a pdf file, and e-mailed it to our fax-impaired cardiologist. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
