Emergency Medicine

Iain Beardsell and Simon Carley follow a patient with acute asthma through assessment, treatment and disposition in this 2015 induction podcast. The case-based discussion explores recognising severity, reassessment, seeking senior support and planning discharge, including inhaler technique, follow-up and advice about returning if concerns persist.

Simon Carley selects ten trauma papers from 2014–2015, with an accompanying discussion with Simon Laing. The review spans transfusion, brain injury, prehospital care, airway management, haemorrhage prediction and thoracotomy, linking to the original studies and highlighting questions raised by this period’s trauma research.

Can a subdissociative dose of ketamine provide comparable pain relief to intravenous morphine? This 2015 journal club examines a small emergency department trial, considering pain scores, rescue analgesia, adverse effects and blinding, while explaining why failure to find a difference does not establish equivalence.

What might emergency clinicians learn from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War? This reflective essay applies ideas about preparation, self-awareness, teamwork and adaptability to the pressures of emergency care, treating organisational challenges as the adversary and explicitly rejecting the idea that patients are enemies.

How did sepsis guidance respond to ProMISe, ProCESS and ARISE? This 2015 commentary examines changes to the Surviving Sepsis Campaign care bundles, particularly the shift away from mandatory central venous targets, and considers the resulting choices around assessing circulation and response to treatment.

How can emergency departments reduce delays for patients who need transfer for primary PCI? This 2015 account of Manchester’s DIDO-30 project examines early ECG recording, recognition and escalation, with practical ideas for improving pathways through staff feedback, shared responsibility and rehearsing the whole process.