Simon Carley shares highlights from the 2018 BASICS North West conference, spanning prehospital care, sepsis, stroke research and support for clinicians. The report ends with his torso trauma discussion, covering changing interventions, paediatric injuries, assessment of shock and the challenges of care across the patient journey.
Torso Trauma tips and the BASICS North West conference 2018. St Emlyn’s Read More
How do we make decisions when time is short and information incomplete? This introduction to St Emlyn’s first e-book brings together risk, probability and metacognition, explaining why thinking about our thinking matters in emergency medicine.
Risk, probability and decisions in Emergency Medicine. St.Emlyn’s Read More
What should a triage score actually achieve? This discussion questions whether diagnosis, mortality or admission adequately measure success, and argues for greater attention to patients whose clinical course or suffering could be changed by earlier intervention.
Triage: The sorting hat of Emergency medicine, but what are we really seeking? St.Emlyn’s. Read More
Can procalcitonin reliably guide antibiotic decisions in the emergency department? This 2017 review traces the biomarker’s evidence across adults, children and intensive care, explaining why different populations, study questions and uncertain effects on outcomes complicate apparently promising results.
Are you PROcalcitonin? St.Emlyn’s goes bug-hunting. Read More
When clinical findings and test results conflict, how should we rethink a diagnosis? Natalie May uses a case and thought experiments to explore heuristics, cognitive bias and probability, showing why more tests alone cannot resolve uncertainty in emergency medicine.
When is a Door Not a Door? Bias, Heuristics & Metacognition Read More
Anand Swaminathan revisits his SMACCDub argument for considering thrombolysis in selected patients with submassive pulmonary embolism. This 2017 opinion piece weighs possible functional benefits against major bleeding, emphasising patient selection, shared decisions and the uncertainty in the evidence available then.
A sceptical 2017 appraisal of a systematic review of intravenous thrombolysis for acute stroke. The post examines functional outcomes, bleeding and mortality, showing how interpretation of benefits and harms fuels disagreement; it presents the author’s historical critique rather than current treatment guidance.
JC: Kicking against the prick: Systematic Review of stroke thrombolysis Read More
How should we interpret a high prevalence of pulmonary embolism among patients admitted with syncope? This 2016 appraisal examines the selected hospital population and distinguishes finding a clot from proving it caused the collapse or that treating it improves outcomes.
Prevalence of PE in patients with syncope Read More
