CCC Update 008
As you know, the LITFL Critical Care Compendium is a living resource built around the knowledge base needed for the FCICM exam, but extends far beyond those conservative boundaries. Plugging away on this project is where I spend most of my time ‘living in the fast lane’.
Here is what is new or undergone a major overhaul recently:
- A problem that may be trivial, or life-threatening – as is the treatment!
- Few areas of medicine are funkier than haemolytic anaemia. The myriad causes, investigations and potential complications (respect cold agglutination is all I can say…) might even cause a bead of sweat to form on Dr. House’s furrowed brow. Here is my distillation of this challenging critical care problem.
- This page may be biased, as I think in situ simulation is the greatest thing since the laryngoscope blade bottle opener. The pros, the cons, the safety issues, how to ensure success and the evidence – it is all here.
- Based on a clinical update by James Hayes, this page outlines the clinical issues regarding the new oral anticoagulant rivaroxaban, an orally active Factor IXa inhibitor.
- Statins have pleiotropic effects and are being studied for numerous conditions in intensive care. Here is another excellent ‘critical evaluation’ of a putative therapy for the critically ill by Sarah Yong.
- Vitamin D also has pleiotropic (the word of the day) effects and is often low in the critically ill. So should we be replacing it? Could this be a future ‘critically evaluate’ question in the FCICM Part II exam? This is a great overview by Sarah Yong.
Critical Care
Compendium
Chris is an Intensivist and ECMO specialist at the Alfred ICU in Melbourne. He is also a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University. He is a co-founder of the Australia and New Zealand Clinician Educator Network (ANZCEN) and is the Lead for the ANZCEN Clinician Educator Incubator programme. He is on the Board of Directors for the Intensive Care Foundation and is a First Part Examiner for the College of Intensive Care Medicine. He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives.
After finishing his medical degree at the University of Auckland, he continued post-graduate training in New Zealand as well as Australia’s Northern Territory, Perth and Melbourne. He has completed fellowship training in both intensive care medicine and emergency medicine, as well as post-graduate training in biochemistry, clinical toxicology, clinical epidemiology, and health professional education.
He is actively involved in in using translational simulation to improve patient care and the design of processes and systems at Alfred Health. He coordinates the Alfred ICU’s education and simulation programmes and runs the unit’s education website, INTENSIVE. He created the ‘Critically Ill Airway’ course and teaches on numerous courses around the world. He is one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) and is co-creator of litfl.com, the RAGE podcast, the Resuscitology course, and the SMACC conference.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Twitter, he is @precordialthump.
| INTENSIVE | RAGE | Resuscitology | SMACC