Critical Care Minutes

Evaluation of a Scientific Study - Evidence Based Medicine

Dr. Birdi — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:23:51 +0000

Wander over to the Evidence Based Medicine section of the website which has recently been opened!

Here you will have an opportunity to review an excellent series from the BMJ by senior lecturer Trisha Greenhalgh entitled “How to read a paper.” This series goes through the basics of a systematic approach on reading, analyzing and critiquing a scientific paper. The BMJ has consistently been a reliable resource for evidence based medical practice sticking to their motto “Helping doctors make better decisions.” Enjoy!

This should at least provide a starting point for our young medical colleagues as well as a good review for the more experienced ones in the art of scientific investigation and evidence based medical decision making. As always please feel free to leave comments and suggestions. Remember, this is an open forum, become part of it!

Burn and Trauma Management - Fellow Conference Series

Dr. Birdi — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 00:26:11 +0000

Dr. Douglas Naylor presented an excellent focused review of the basic management of Burn and Trauma patients. Even though this may not address the “run of the mill” ICU patients, it is extremely important for critical care practitioners to understand the basics of acute trauma management. Always remember the BASICS!!! A irway, B reathing, C irculation !!!The rest of the fellow conferences can be reviewed by clicking here.

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Therapy Misalignment: How does this happen?

Dr. Birdi — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 00:03:01 +0000

Dr. Tim Sable’s review of a common and recurrent issue in critical care practice: therapy misalignment. Review the presentation to see how current practitioners use randomized controlled trials to manage ICU patients and whether or not these therapies are in line with the results of the studies. Dr. Sable reviews the TRICC and ARMA trials as examples. This presentation is archived in the section of Journal Club Presentations.

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Early Goal-Directed Therapy in Septic Shock

Dr. Birdi — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:28:18 +0000

Dr. Dana Darwish presents an excellent review of one of the classic papers in critical care literature by Rivers et al. This landmark study looks at Early Goal-Directed Therapy in the treatment of Septic Shock. Do we finally have an answer to the near 40% mortality rate from this morbidity? The review of the stud below may help you figure that out. This presentation is archived in the section of Journal Club Presentations.

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PA Catheter Questionnaire now ONLINE!

Dr. Birdi — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:49:14 +0000

Courtesy of Dr. Shahpour Esfandiari, M.D.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE PAC QUESTIONNAIRE

Please go through the entire set of 29 questions. There will be more added to this list very soon. Once you have gone though all the questions please CONTACT ME via the tab above and I will send you the answer key. The goal here is for this to be educational and NOT A GRADED QUIZ!!! Enjoy! These questions were designed specifically for PA catheter education. Of note, only about 60% of practicing Critical Care Intensivists were able to pass this when it was tested via a survey based system. Hmmm…interesting…

Assessment of Renal Funtion in the ICU

Dr. Birdi — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:09:43 +0000

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Nutrition Service Lecture on Wed Aug 1st, 2007

Dr. Birdi — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:27:59 +0000

Please attend the lecture on Nutrition to be given on Wednesday, Aug 1 in the G5’s KIVA conference room at 12 noon. This will be an excellent overview of the TPN service and an introduction to writing TPN orders in the ICU. Metabolic and caloric requirements along with daily electrolyte and mineral supplementation will be discussed. Even if you have heard it before, this should be nice way to refresh your memory. This conference is mandatory for the interns and residents rotating through the SICU rotation. However, all are welcome to attend. Please arrive early as space is limited.

SICU Journal Club Minutes (Part 3) - July 25th

Dr. Birdi — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:16:14 +0000

Dr. Christofer Utz did an excellent review of the Critical Care Safety Study published in 2005 Critical Care Medicine. The primary objective of this study was to identify the incidence and rates of adverse events in critical care units per 1000 patient days. Dr. Utz reports the study design, methods as well as resuts and finished the presentation with a nice critique on several limitations of this study. The discussion was very engaging and raised several important questions regarding how should we truly define a medical error. The audience also questioned whether we should be reporting some of these errors at all vs. should we be reporting more than we already do today. This presentation is archived in the section of Journal Club Presentations.

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First Podcast is now LIVE!

Dr. Birdi — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:58:52 +0000

This first podcast will be an introduction to our website and its features. You will be able to
subscribe to this podcast series very soon using iTunes. The link to subscribe to the podcast
feed is on the right sidebar of the page. Be sure to check out all our future podcasts here and
stay tuned for future updates to the site. ICUniversity is already online and currently being
updated. Get enrolled and stay tuned for more updates coming soon.

SICU Journal Club on July 25th (articles available)

Dr. Birdi — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:00:31 +0000

The articles for the next journal club are linked for download below: