Links

Here are some websites, blogs, and online resources we recommend for improving your noodle. All links here are for resources that we’ve personally used, learned from, and recommend to others.

Educational sites

Emergency medicine

• BurnDoc.net — Dr. Jeff Guy is a burn surgeon, intensivist, and former paramedic. He produces three podcasts: one on PHTLS (for which he is an advisor), one on prehospital pharmacology (he has a book on this as well), and one on critical care. All three are tremendously valuably and fascinating for all levels.
• Emcrit.org — Dr. Scott Weingart is an “ED intensivist,” and his site is flush with information on “bringing upstairs care downstairs” — that is, bringing the techniques, equipment, and principles of the ICU into the emergency department. Fairly advanced for most EMS providers, but full of interesting ideas to work with.
• Life in the Fast Lane — A perennial favorite, LitFL is flush with clinical information on all aspects of emergency medicine, from Aspirin to Zoophilia.
• My Emergency Medicine Blog — Frequently posted, short, and sweet clinical pearls from an ED physician
• Resus.me — Research reviews and updates in emergency medicine.
• Emergency Medicine Forum — Educational case reports from the ED, following them from initial presentation to final disposition, with extensive analysis and citation of current literature
• UMEM Clinical Pearls — Bite-sized clinical wisdom from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Subscribe to get one in your inbox every day, or browse the archives.
• Gobbet o’ Pus — A podcast dedicated to infectious disease, by the affable Dr. Mark Crislip. Alternately available in text form at Rubor, Dolor, Calor, Tumor.

Prehospital medicine

• Paramedicine 101 — A compendium blog, founded by Paramedic Adam Thompson and featuring educational posts by a number of EMS professionals.
• The EMT Spot — A blog focused on fundamental EMS skills, particularly healthy attitudes and outlooks for providers. Written by Steve Whitehead, who’s been writing in this field since dinosaurs roamed the steppes.
• Rogue Medic — Tim Noonan’s blog dedicated to shining bright lights at the things EMS likes to sweep under the rug. Opinionated, sometimes antagonizing, the Rogue Medic plays a critical role as devil’s advocate in the push towards making EMS more professional, thoughtful, and evidence-based.
• EMS Standing Orders — A relatively new podcast that takes a close look at contentious issues within EMS, featuring an illustrious panel of down-to-earth physicians and paramedics, and engaging with a great deal of the current literature.
• EMS Research — a podcast dedicated to in-depth review of recent research pertinent to EMS.
• Capnography for Paramedics — Devised by Peter Canning, this static page is an introduction and clearinghouse for information on the use of waveform capnography by paramedics. It was created several years ago when capnography was first becoming available and was the first web presence of this type serving to educate and promote a specific EMS intervention.

EMS Scenarios

• Life from Peachtree St. — A collection of instructional EMS cases with straightforward and informative notes on care, plus quizzes and other discussion. Long defunct, but still a great resource.
• Less Stress Prehospital Care/EMS Simulator — A collection of “choose your own adventure” style scenarios, letting you walk through a call in the role of an EMT or paramedic. Simple, educational, and funny, although no longer updated.

Electrocardiography

• Prehospital 12-lead ECG — FF/medic Tom Bouthillet’s outstanding resource for ECG interpretation, appropriate for everyone from the medic (or interested Basic) up through the EP physician. Tom has more information here on advanced use of the 12-lead in the field, in a more accessible style, than anyone else on the web.
• Dr. Smith’s ECG Blog — ED physician Dr. Stephen Smith collects and posts cases with elaborate explanations and explorations of subtleties. Flush with clinical observations, ECG flags, and decision algorithms that you won’t find anywhere else.
• Prehospital 12-Lead ECG: What You Should Know — This is a PDF file published by Physio-Control (of Lifepak fame), intended as a primer for acquiring and interpreting 12-leads. Covers all the basics of understanding the 12-lead and reading it for AMI. One of my first introductions to the ECG.
• Skillstat Six-Second ECG Simulator — Produces canonical examples of all the standard rhythms for real-time interpretation practice. Good introductory tool for learning basic morphologies.
• Pace Symposia ECG Simulator — This is a commercial product for ECG simulation and education, but the website includes a partially-featured free rhythm producer that can be helpful for small-scale training.
• Blaufuss Multimedia — A collection of multimedia cardiology tools, including heart sound samples, a neat front axis demo, and the best of all, an outstanding, comprehensive tutorial on SVTs.
• Tom Evans’ ECG Cribsheets — “At a glance” references for a variety of ECG findings, suitable for downloading onto a PDA.
• Garcia and Holtz Practice ECGs — 30 sample 12-leads with extensive interpretation, courtesy of Dr. Tomas Garcia and Neil Holtz, EMT-P.
• Super ECG Puzzler — Over 200 practice 12-leads with interpretations, provided by The Online Journal of Cardiology and McGill University.
• American College of Cardiology ECG Challenge — 11 difficult ECGs, courtesy of a panel of nine top educators, designed to test your ability to distinguish true STEMI from STEMI-lookalikes.
• CardioBeat cases — Several unusual cardiology cases with ECGs, and extensive explanations.
• ECGpedia — A wiki dedicated to ECG interpretation and understanding, with many good example images.
• Mercer Teaching Points — An extensive collection of sample ECGs illustrating various electrical findings, both common and unusual. Courtesy Mercer University.
• USC ECG Learning Center — Quiz-style collection of over 80 ECGs with full interpretations, courtesy of Dr. Amir Schricker and Dr. Jerold Shinbane (originally out of the University of South California).
• Alan E. Lindsay ECG Learning Center — An extensive educational site including tutorials on basic interpretation, quizzes, and numerous sample ECGs. Created by Dr. Frank G. Yanowitz of the University of Utah School of Medicine.
• Dubin pocket reference — Pocket-sized ECG references from the seminal Rapid Interpretation of ECGs, provided free courtesy of Dr. Dale Dubin.
• The ECG Blog — A blog by an ED nurse and ECG enthusiast, giving cases, interpretation, and discussion. Personable and readable.
• Life in the Fast Lane ECG Library — A collection of clinical cases and educational material from the fine folks at LitFL.
• ECG Made Simple — Comprehensive educational site with a variety of ECG tutorials and sample cases. Requires registration.
• The Jarvik 7 — Cardiology blog focusing on esoterica and subtleties, with extensive case analyses and copious citation.
• The EKG Club — Home of ECG nerds worldwide, this is a great Yahoo! discussion list dedicated to all things electrocardiographic, founded by Nick Nudell, EMT-P.
• My Variables Have Only 6 Letters — Paramedic Christopher Watford’s blog on ECG bits and bytes, as well as other paramedical topics.
• ECG Wave-Maven — An educational collection devoted to improving the “ECG literacy” of clinicians everywhere. Plenty of cases and practice ECGs, including a quiz mode. Courtesy of the Beth Israel Deaconess and Harvard.

Blogs

• Street Watch — Peter Canning is one of the elder statesmen of EMS authorship, and his blog is well-loved and consistently honest and intimate; he also has several published memoirs about his time on the streets.
• Too Old to Work, Too Young to Retire — One of the better and more engaging EMS writers out there; his blog shares EMS stories as well as whatever else strikes his fancy.
• Pink, Warm, and Dry — The EMS blog of Epi Junky, a paramedic, mom, and natural writer. Perhaps the best look on the web at the “human side” of EMS.
• A Day in the Life of an Ambulance Driver — The well-written croonings of Kelly Grayson, paramedic, educator, and published author.
• Gomerville — The tumultuous chronicles of Buckman, a paramedic and organ donor coordinator in Kentucky. Buckman is the Lewis Black of EMS, and his site is always an enjoyable read, although perhaps not the best thing to introduce to an impressionable new EMT…

Miscellaneous

• The NNT — A completely idiot-proof review of evidence-based support for various medical interventions. What it lacks in comprehensiveness it makes up for in ease of comprehension.
• Z Dogg MD — The medical humor site of a hospitalist-slash-comic (and his crew) who feels compelled to share his wit with the world. Not exactly educational, but truly funny.
• Other things amanzi — The blog of a general surgeon in South Africa, sharing stories from his practice and his training. Not directly pertinent to EMS, but a good look at the surgical world, and brilliantly if modestly written.