An April 2020 critical appraisal of early reports linking COVID-19 with thrombosis and raised D-dimer. Dan Horner questions incidence estimates, composite outcomes and claims about heparin, explaining why observational associations alone could not settle the benefits and harms of intensified anticoagulation.
COVID-19 and Blood Clots: Diagnosis, D-dimers and Dilemmas Read More
An extended April 2020 COVID-19 journal club collection, combining the first webinar with ten additional paper reviews. Topics include children, antibody testing, intensive care outcomes, prediction models and thrombosis, with attention to bias, small samples and the limits of early observations.
Covid-19 Journal Club: The Director’s Cut #1. St Emlyn’s Read More
How should clinicians interpret a raised troponin when COVID-19 is also possible? This April 2020 review explores myocardial injury, myocarditis and acute coronary syndromes, emphasising the clinical history, ECG and alternative diagnoses rather than assuming every cardiac presentation is caused by the virus.
COVID-19 and The Heart. St Emlyn’s Read More
Writing in April 2020, Simon Carley argues for evidence-based medicine despite the pressure to try unproven COVID-19 treatments. He examines the weaknesses of uncontrolled reports and explains how coordinated UK research, including RECOVERY, offered a route to more reliable answers.
How can graphics help staff absorb unfamiliar procedures during a crisis? Nick Smith explains visual communication and cognitive load, sharing a clinical procedures guide, icons and practical design ideas developed for redeployed and newly qualified doctors during the first COVID-19 wave.
Daddy, what did you do in the COVID War? Read More
A collection assembled in April 2020 for doctors redeployed into emergency medicine during COVID-19. It brings together RCEM and St Emlyn’s induction resources, pandemic material and open-access books to support clinicians entering the ED for the first time or returning after a gap.
Covid19: Induction materials for docs redeployed to Emergency Medicine. St Emlyn’s Read More
John Rogers and Nathan Lewis discuss what healthcare workers might learn from sport and exercise medicine about sleep, stress, exercise and nutrition. Recorded during the first COVID-19 wave, the conversation draws on athlete research while acknowledging the limits of applying it to pandemic staff health.
Lessons from Sports and Exercise Medicine Read More
An April 2020 teaching model for thinking about infection control around patients with suspected COVID-19. Thomas Bannister and Simon Carley use a ‘bubble’ analogy to discuss equipment, communication, patient transfers and the challenge of changing familiar clinical habits during the first wave.
The #COVID-19 bubble: St Emlyn’s Read More
