Author: Dan Ostermayer

All content on WikEM is reviewed by editors who are committed to content quality and correctness.  The WikEM organization is extremely egalitarian with an open and transparent promotion process. The more your contribute to the wiki, the greater your level of influence and recognition within the organization. The wiki software tracks contributions and ranks authors based on contribution

• Casual users can contribute small changes
• Residents can participate individually or as part of a residency elective
• Any physician can advance through the official editorial levels.

As more content moves to the internet on platforms other than textbooks and journals, WikEM will use metrics such as these to advance the academic and educational careers of our contributors.… Read more

WikEM is proud to announce  this week’s sponsor, MedNexus, a search engine designed for healthcare providers.  They are developing a really exciting set of tools using semantic search to create a “Google for Medicine”.  Their search and discovery tools allow a provider to quickly find the most relevant articles, reviews, guidelines, and medical content to answer clinical questions while caring for patients.

The power of their system rests in a sophisticated ranking system to organize content by quality and relevance.  This means their results are not only more targeted to your clinical question but also of greater quality than a stand web search.

MedNexus offers a web search portal, iOS app, and they have an Android version on the way! We also had the privilege of talking… Read more

Which of the following is NOT a risk factor for cerebral edema in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA)?

A. Elevated blood urea nitrogen

B. Low serum potassium on presentation

C. Treatment with bicarbonate

D. Age < 3 years

E. Failure of serum sodium to rise steadily with correction of hyperglycemia

…an excerpt from The Kaji Review … Read more

A 60kg female patient is seizing and has a serum sodium of 113 mEq/L with no underlying history of seizures. What should be the treatment of her hyponatremia?

A. Hypertonic saline 3% – 290 ml over 2 hours
B. Normal saline 3% – 50 ml over 30 minutes
C. Phenytoin 1 gram
D. Hypertonic saline 3% – 1000 ml IV bolus
E. Hypertonic saline 3% – 750 ml over 2 hours

Read more questions from the Kaji Review… Read more

One of the reasons we are so passionate about using a wiki for knowledge organization, is the ability to intelligently derive information from other information. The wiki is a dynamic platform.  Caution up front, this post will not focus on medical knowledge as many of our blog posts, but will discuss the technical details of how we used the wiki to automate the creation of 14 pages of data with over 50 medication and equipment doses.   The process provides an example of how placing medical knowledge on a wiki provides an exponential number of opportunities of organization, derivation, and advanced learning.

 

The first concept to explore is structured vs unstructured data.  At the most basic form, data that has information attached to it is structured and data that has no describing information… Read more

The April Newsletter is available.  It features cardiac ultrasound, the surviving sepsis updates after the most recent randomized trials, lightning injuries and the Kaji Review.

Also please support our ongoing sponsor: Push Health: a virtual medical practice on your phone… Read more

We have been listening to your feedback and are happy to announce that the same Favorites and Lists feature on iOS is now available on Android today.  We are always working hard to bring features to our mobile platform while keeping it fast and simple to access WikEM pages offline during a busy ER shift.

The fundamental goal of the WikEM community is organization of EM information for free, easy, and fast access while caring for a patient.  Look for many great features over the coming months as we continue to develop our mobile apps.

 … Read more

Regarding felons, which of the following statements is FALSE?

A. A felon is an infection of the pulp of the distal finger or thumb.

B. It differs from other types of subcutaneous abscesses because of the presence of multiple vertical septa that divide the pulp into small fascial compartments.

C. The incision should be made along the radial aspect of the index, middle, and ring fingers, and the ulnar aspects of the thumb and little finger, avoiding the pincher surfaces.

D. Any incision that is made too deep can injure the flexor tendon sheath.

E. Untreated, the expanding abscess can extend toward the phalanx, producing an osteitis or osteomyelitis.

Read more questions…

 … Read more