R&R In The FASTLANE 161

Welcome to the 161st edition of Research and Reviews in the Fastlane. R&R in the Fastlane is a free resource that harnesses the power of social media to allow some of the best and brightest emergency medicine and critical care clinicians from all over the world tell us what they think is worth reading from the published literature.

This edition contains 5 recommended reads. The R&R Editorial Team includes Jeremy Fried, Nudrat Rashid, Soren Rudolph, Anand Swaminathan and, of course, Chris Nickson. Find more R&R in the Fastlane reviews in the : Overview; Archives and Contributors

This Edition’s R&R Hall of Famer

Mayer RE. Applying the science of learning to medical education. Medical education. 44(6):543-9. 2010. PMID: 20604850

• Richard Meyer provides a crystal clear explanation of his research-based cognitive theory of multimedia learning. This theory explains how people learn from words and pictures in terms of information processing. It has clear implications for how instructors should help learners learn: cut out extraneous crap (like distracting animations on slides), help learners hold information in their working memory (e.g. define key terms before explaining a process) and help learners make sense of what they are seeing and hearing (e.g. use pictures with words, instead of just words, and speak in a conversational style). This is a must read if you ever try to teach someone something… (Justin: I suspect these same techniques could be adopted to help improve our communication with patients.)
• Recommended by Chris Nickson

Chen IC et al. Croup-induced postobstructive pulmonary edema. The Kaohsiung journal of medical sciences. 26(10):567-70. 2010. PMID: 20604850

• Not all Croup is as easy as “Give ’em Dex and think about Racemic Epi.” Sometimes croup can become complicated by Negative Pressure Pulmonary Edema!
• Recommended by Sean Fox
• Read more Negative pressure pulmonary edema and croup (Pediatric EM Morsels)

Braun C et al. Bystander cricothyroidotomy with household devices – afresh cadaveric feasibility study. Resuscitation 2016. PMID: 27810460

• Despite the conclusions these authors come to based on a cadaveric model (with no actual blood) bystanders should not be performing emergency cricothyroidotomies. I think we all knew this but these authors seem to think that with minimal or no training, anyone could perform this high-risk procedure with simple household items.
• Recommended by Anand Swaminathan

Ranney ML et al. Tweet Now, See You In the ED Later? Examining the Association Between Alcohol-related Tweets and Emergency Care Visits. Academic emergency medicine. 23(7):831-4. 2016. PMID: 27062454

• It may not actually help you, but I love this look at big data to predict busier times in emergency departments. The authors searched a sample of Twitter posts for terms considered to be “alcohol related” and compared those tweets to the number of visits at a single high volume urban emergency department that were deemed to be alcohol related. There was a statistical association with the number of alcohol related tweets and the number of alcohol related visits (but not non-alcohol related visits.) In case you were wondering, the alcohol related keywords were “alcohol, beer, wine, cocktail, booze, drunk, partying, clubbing, wasted, plastered, and tipsy”. Although this data is far from definitive, I think social media is an interesting potential source of medical information. Bottom line: If #plastered is trending, you might be in for a busy shift
• Recommended by Justin Morgenstern

Theobald JL wt al. The Beef Jerky Blues: Methemoglobinemia From Home Cured Meat. Pediatric emergency care. 2016. PMID: 27749634

• Methemoglobinemia from inappropriately prepared homemade beef jerky! Cool!
• Recommended by RPR
• Read more: When cured meat kills (Emergency Medicine Literature of Note)