Busy Week

Had a very busy week this past week. Lots of interesting stuff and now my brain is full.

An attempt at chronicling my week:

It started out last Tuesday, May 15, with a webinar titled "Fifteen Months in Baghdad ER" presented by Dr Todd Baker and hosted by centrelearn. The thing that struck me the most was how YOUNG the ER team was. A bunch of kids with no experience, thrust into a very stressful environment. Doesn't seem like the best plan in the world.

On Thursday May 17, I made plans to set aside my regular schedule and spend the entire day attending the EMS Web Summit, and I'm glad that I did. It was exhausting, between listening and taking notes without a lot of down time from 10:00-20:30. I learned something of value from every session, even those I had thought weren't going to be particularly useful. Much of what I learned applies to my non-EMS life as well, which made it an even more valuable experience.

I was glad to see good attendance at the event from other folks in this area. Looks like my effort to spread the word was fairly successful. I sincerely hope this becomes a regular event.

After an extremely busy weekend, between working, going to calls, and helping out with a benefit, on Monday May 21, we spent the day in Syracuse at a day-long EMS Seminar. Some good sessions there, including a fabulous one on Pediatric Cardiology that really needed about three weeks to cover everything instead of an hour. The presenter- Dr Harry Wallus- was great, and I now have a huge amount of information to do some follow-up research on. If I thought cardiology was fascinating before, pediatric cardiology is even more so.

Also saw a presentation on new treatments for stroke that include a method to go in and remove a clot physically. Similar in some ways to placing a stent for a STEMI. Open up the artery, problem goes away. The best part is that there isn't the same time-after-onset limitation of tPA. Worst part is that it is still in the research phase, so it's not widely available. I hope they hurry up with that before I have a stroke.

Spent Monday night trying in vain to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Tuesday May 22, we spent the day at the Albany Med EMS Teaching Day. More great stuff. They hosted a nice variety of speakers, gave out a lot of great door prizes, none of which I won, and even gave us a "goody bag" with a few things apparently donated by sponsors. They also had prepared a notebook ahead of time with the schedule and some of the powerpoint slides. Wasn't overly fond of the lecture hall, though. With all the construction going on up there, I hope they'll find a way to provide better facilities for the med school. They are doing some great work there, and deserve something that doesn't have the feel of a mid 20th century insane asylum.

Here is the list of topics during that week:

"My Fifteen Months in Baghdad" Dr Todd Baker
What You Don’t Know, Might Hurt Them!  15-lead ECG Bob Page
Use Social Media to Market Your EMS Agency  Greg Friese
The EMS Mentor Dan Limmer
How to Earn Your Flight Crew Wings Troy Shaffer
Say This, Not That | Critical Elements Of Patient Rapport Steve Whitehead
The Silent Majority: Geriatrics in the New Millennium Rommie L. Duckworth
Abandon The Ambulance This Is EMS In Remote Areas    Jamie Todd
Belly Busters: Abominable Abdominal Trauma Rommie L. Duckworth
Can Patients Survive Epinephrine After ROSC? Tim Noonan
Dazed and Confused: SNS Stimulation in EMS Evan Feuer
Granny Has A Fever: Sepsis Kelly Grayson
EMS Changes Peter Canning
Cardiac Arrest Management Updates for the EMS Provider    Sean Kivlehan
Primary Coronary Intervention for Acute MI    Dr Ronald Caputo 
Heartmate II: LVAD
Evolution in Stroke Care    Dr Michael Jorolemon
Blue Babies: Critically Ill Children    Dr Harry Wallus
What's New in EMS    panel
Reducing offload time in ER   panel discussion
The Difficult Patient    Charles O'Donnell RN
Seizures/Epilepsy    Dr Anthony Ritaccio
LIVE Cardiac Cath    Dr Augustin DeLago
Designer Drugs    Dr Tilney
Trauma Notification/Communication    Dr Tilney
Trauma Case Review    Dr Daniel Bonville
Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury    Dr Christopher King
Renal Failure and Dialysis    Sue Fallone, RN
Stroke    Deborah Jewell, RN (Stroke Care Center Coordinator)

Can't beat that with a stick!! Seriously. Time for a nap now. If you're near enough to get there, keep an eye out for the teaching days offered by both Albany Med and the folks in Syracuse (a joint venture between Upstate, Crouse and St Joseph's). Well worth attending, even if it's a bit of a drive.