Reference: Sax DR, et al. Emergency Severity Index Version 4 and Triage of Pediatric Emergency Department Patients. JAMA Pediatrics, October 2024 Date: February 12, 2025 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Brandon Ho is a graduating pediatric emergency medicine fellow at Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC and soon to be attending physician at Seattle Children’s. His research […] The post SGEM#471: Are ESI Levels Accurate for Triage of Pediatric Patients? first appeared on The Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine.

Date: April 1, 2025 This is another SGEM Xtra. I was asked to give a public lecture for the Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health. The topic was the zombie idea that emergency department crowding is due to non-urgent patients. You can click on this LINK and get a PDF copy of my slides. The […] The post SGEM Xtra Zombie Idea: ED Crowding is Due to Non-Urgent Patients first appeared on The Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine.

Date: March 23, 2025 I was honoured to be invited to speak at Incrementum 2025 in Mercia, Spain. Thank you to Paco, Carmen, and the Incrementum team for putting on one of the best conferences ever. They asked me to talk about five important recent papers in 15 minutes. Usually, I do ten papers in […] The post SGEM Xtra: 5 Papers in 15 Minutes (Incrementum 2025) first appeared on The Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine.

Date: February 22, 2025 Guest Skeptic: Nicholas Peoples, who is a medical student at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Nick’s career has been an exciting blend of global health and emergency medicine. In 2015, Nick was part of the first-ever class to study at Duke University’s new campus in China, where he earned […] The post SGEM Xtra: On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Citation Errors in the Biomedical Literature first appeared on The Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine.

Reference: Pessano S, et al. Positioning for lumbar puncture in newborn infants. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. December 2023 Date: February 7, 2025 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Lauren Rosenfeld is a PGY-3 emergency medicine resident at George Washington University. She is also a new podcast host for Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA) Cast Series. Case: A five-day-old […] The post SGEM #470: Here We Go Up Up Up or Lateral for Infant Lumbar Punctures first appeared on The Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine.

Reference: Bannelier et al. Failure rate of D-dimer testing in patients with high clinical probability of pulmonary embolism: Ancillary analysis of three European studies. AEM Feb 2025 Date: February 27, 2025 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Lauren Westafer an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School – Baystate. She is […] The post SGEM#469: You Take My Breath Away – D-dimer for Ruling out PE in High-Risk Patients first appeared on The Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine.

Dr. Aaron Skolnick, an Assistant Professor at Mayo Clinic specializing in emergency medicine, dives into the complexities of diagnosing sepsis. He discusses the promising potential of Monocyte Distribution Width (MDW) as a rapid biomarker for early detection. Skolnick highlights the challenges of identifying sepsis due to its nonspecific symptoms and critiques existing diagnostic methodologies. The conversation also covers the biases in observational studies versus randomized control trials, and evaluates the clinical implications of MDW in emergency settings.

Dr. Ross Prager, an intensivist and adjunct professor, dives into the revolutionary role of AI in clinical research. He highlights how AI enhances patient eligibility screening and data analysis while stressing the need for human insight. The ethical implications of AI, including data privacy and bias, are discussed candidly. Prager also emphasizes the importance of maintaining high quality in systematic reviews despite automation. Listeners gain insights into the future of AI in healthcare and the critical balance required to harness its potential responsibly.

Reference: Leonard JC et al. PECARN prediction rule for cervical spine imaging of children presenting to the emergency department with blunt trauma: a multicentre prospective observational study. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. June 2024. Date: Oct 15, 2024 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Tabitha Cheng is a Southern California native and board-certified emergency medicine physician and completed an […] The post SGEM #467: Send me on my way…without Cervical Spine Imaging first appeared on The Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine.

Date: January 9, 2025 Reference: White et al. Evidence of questionable research practices in clinical prediction models. BMC Med 2023 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Jestin Carlson is the Program Director for the AHN-Saint Vincent EM Residency in Erie Pennsylvania.  He is the former National Director of Clinical Education for US Acute Care Solutions and an American […] The post SGEM#466: I Love ROC-n-Roll…But Not When It’s Hacked first appeared on The Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine.