Ep 118 - August 2018 Round Up

St Emlyn’s Monthly Round-Up: August Highlights and Key Insights Hello and welcome to the St Emlyn’s blog! I’m Simon Carley and today; I’m thrilled to share with you some of the standout moments and key insights from our blog in August. Yes, I know it’s October now, but we’ve been incredibly busy organizing the St Emlyn’s Live and the teaching course in Manchester. More on that in a later post. It’s been a fantastic period for us, and even though we’re a bit behind, it’s perfectly okay. Let’s dive into some spaced repetition and revisit the exciting content from August. Natalie May’s Adventures Down Under In August, we featured a series of blogs by Natalie May, chronicling her experiences at the Emergency Medicine of South-Os conference in Australia, where she served as a keynote speaker. Natalie covered several essential topics during her time there, providing valuable insights and lessons for emergency medicine professionals. One of the key sessions she highlighted was about the effective use of apps in emergency medicine. This session was particularly interesting as it covered various clinical applications that can enhance productivity and patient care. Natalie shared top tips from her session, many of which she personally uses. This collection includes clinical tools and productivity apps, making it a must-read for anyone looking to optimize their practice. Many of these tips also tie back to a post by Scott Weingart from a few years ago about getting things done in emergency medicine. Natalie’s update builds on Scott’s foundation, providing new insights and practical advice for today’s busy and complex medical environment. Lessons Learned at the Conference Another highlight from Natalie’s posts was a session on lessons learned. This session brought together five respected professionals—Gary Birk, Jesse Spur, Natalie herself, Ian Summers, and Tim Lewinburg—who discussed instances where things didn’t go as planned. These stories weren’t just about clinical errors but also about soft skills, which, as we know, are anything but soft. The panel covered communication issues, handover challenges, and awareness of equality and diversity in the emergency department. One poignant story involved an equality and diversity issue where Natalie acknowledged a consultation that didn’t go as expected. These discussions are crucial as they address elements that are challenging to learn from textbooks but significantly impact patient care and team dynamics. Rick Body’s Troponin Insights Moving on, we had an exceptional post by Rick Body on troponin, specifically focusing on high-sensitivity troponin samples. Rick is a leading authority on troponin, and his insights are invaluable. One particularly critical point he raised was the impact of biotin supplements on troponin assays. Rick explained that patients taking biotin might show negative troponin results even when there is a myocardial infarction. This is a significant finding as it could lead to missed diagnoses. Rick advises emergency departments to either determine the type of analyzer their lab uses or routinely check biotin levels in patients to avoid potentially serious errors. This post is a must-read for anyone involved in emergency medicine as it provides practical advice to enhance diagnostic accuracy. SMAC Conference and the CESR Route August was also a month of anticipation for the upcoming SMAC conference. We discussed the excitement surrounding this event, which promises to be an incredible gathering of emergency medicine professionals. If you haven’t registered yet, make sure to do so as this will be the last SMAC, and it’s set to be unforgettable. We also explored the CESR route in the UK. For those unfamiliar, the CESR (Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration) is an alternative path to becoming a consultant in emergency medicine. Unlike the traditional six-year training program, the CESR route is portfolio-based and has recently undergone some ch