Emergency Medicine Course Experience

December 2, 2020December 2, 2020 ~ iEM Education Project Team ~ Leave a comment

It has been two years that the International Emergency Medicine (iEM) Education Project (iem-student.org) met with medical students. The project, which aims to promote emergency medicine and provide free, reusable education resources for medical students and educators, reached another important milestone during the COVID-19 pandemic.

iEM education project, which supported by United Arab Emirates University College of Medicine and Health Sciences and endorsed by the IFEM, announced a 4-week free open online emergency medicine core content course for medical students via IFEM newsletter and multiple emergency medicine platforms at the end of the April. In the first 24 hours, the course website (iem-course.org) was visited more than 3000 times from 57 countries. Syria (13%), Indonesia (10.6%), Thailand (8.1%), United States (7.3%), and Vietnam (6.5%) were the top five countries where registered students are coming from. The report of this social responsibility initiative shows a great collaboration of academic, non-profit and commercial organisations during a pandemic. The background and the first 24 hours of this journey has now been published as an editorial in the African Journal of Emergency Medicine.

You can read the editorial “From the pandemic’s front lines: A social responsibility initiative to develop an international free online emergency medicine course for medical students” from this link – (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211419X2030135X).

COVID-19 Clinical Readiness Course For Medical Students

June 26, 2020June 26, 2020 ~ Arif Alper Cevik ~ Leave a comment

Dear students,

We are pleased to open our fourth course for you; iEM/Lecturio – COVID-19 Clinal Readiness Course.

As we did in the EMCC course, we collaborated with Lecturio to provide you an excellent course to improve your knowledge in the clinical applications in COVID-19 cases.

The interactive course content is prepared by Lecturio’s expert educators Dr. Eisha Chopra, Dr. Julie Rice, Dr. Daniel Sweiden, Dr. Julianna Jung from John Hopkins University, Department of Emergency Medicine. Assessments of the course were prepared by Dr. Arif Alper Cevik from United Arab Emirates University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences.

One more time, we thank Lecturio for their amazing resources and support to our social responsibility initiative to help medical students in need during these challenging times.

As a part of our social responsibility initiative, iem-course.org will continue to provide free open online courses related to emergency medicine. We hope our courses help you to continue your education during these difficult times.

Please send us your feedback or requests about courses.

We are here to help you.

Best regards.

Arif Alper Cevik, MD, FEMAT, FIFEM

iEM Course is a social responsibility initiative of iEM Education Project

Course Length

This course requires 2-4 hours of study time. The course content will be available for 7 days after the enrolment.

Who can get benefit from this course?

Junior and senior medical students (course specifically designed for these groups)
Interns/Junior emergency medicine residents/registrars

Certificate

The candidates who successfully pass final summative assessment of the course will be provided course completion certificate.

Other Free Online Courses

Cite this article as: Arif Alper Cevik, "COVID-19 Clinical Readiness Course For Medical Students," in International Emergency Medicine Education Project, June 26, 2020, https://iem-student.org/2020/06/26/covid-19-clinical-readiness-course/, date accessed: October 1, 2023

RUSH Course for Medical Students

May 27, 2020July 10, 2020 ~ Arif Alper Cevik ~ Leave a comment

Dear students,

We are pleased to open our third course for you; Rapid Ultrasound in Shock and Hypotension (RUSH).

Please send us your feedback or requests about courses.

We are here to help you.

Best regards.

Arif Alper Cevik, MD, FEMAT, FIFEM

iEM Course is a social responsibility initiative of iEM Education Project

Hypotension is a high-risk sign which is associated with increased morbidity and mortality rate. The differential diagnosis for hypotension is broad and the treatment depends on the underlying etiology. In most cases of hypotension, patients present with limited history and physical examination may be inaccurate making the management of the condition a great challenge for emergency physicians.

The use of POCUS in undifferentiated hypotension has been shown to help correctly and rapidly identify the etiology and therefore initiate the appropriate management. Since 2001, there are many protocols published describing a systematic approach to the use of POCUS in undifferentiated hypotension.

In this course, we will focus on the Rapid Ultrasound in Shock and Hypotension (RUSH) protocol.

This course aims to provide the necessary information on ultrasonography, its use in a hypotensive patient, and to prepare you for a RUSH practice session.

The course content is prepared and curated from iEM Education chapters, iEM image and video archives, and various FOAMed resources.

At the end of this course, you will be able to;

Describe the basics of ultrasound (terminology, knobology, image acquisition, artifacts, etc.)
Describe indications of RUSH protocol
Describe patient and machine preparations
Describe ultrasound examination views
Recognize normal anatomical structures
Recognize abnormal findings
Feel confident to take a practical session for RUSH protocol

Who can get benefit from this course?

Junior and senior medical students (course specifically designed for these groups)
Interns/Junior emergency medicine residents/registrars

Other Free Online Courses

Cite this article as: Arif Alper Cevik, "RUSH Course for Medical Students," in International Emergency Medicine Education Project, May 27, 2020, https://iem-student.org/2020/05/27/rush-course-for-medical-students/, date accessed: October 1, 2023

eFAST Course for Medical Students

May 18, 2020July 10, 2020 ~ Arif Alper Cevik ~ 6 Comments

Dear students,

We are pleased to open our second course for you; Extended Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (eFAST).

Please send us your feedback or requests about courses.

We are here to help you.

Best regards.

Arif Alper Cevik, MD, FEMAT, FIFEM

iEM Course is a social responsibility initiative of iEM Education Project

Extended Focused Assessment With Sonography In Trauma (eFAST) is one of the most commonly used emergency ultrasound or Point-Of-Care Ultrasound protocols. It is a protocol that we use in trauma patients. However, the eFAST examination can also be a part of another protocol, such as RUSH protocol.

The early diagnosis of a bleeding trauma patient is essential for better patient care. Unfortunately, it is proven that our physical exam findings are not perfect in every case. Therefore, using a bedside tool in addition to the physical examination can improve patient management.

As a 21st-century medical student/young physician, you must learn how to use this tool to provide more comprehensive and accurate care to your patients.

This course aims to provide the necessary information on ultrasonography, its use in a multiply injured trauma patient, and to prepare you for an eFAST practice session.

Cite this article as: Arif Alper Cevik, "eFAST Course for Medical Students," in International Emergency Medicine Education Project, May 18, 2020, https://iem-student.org/2020/05/18/efast-course-for-medical-students/, date accessed: October 1, 2023

Free Open Online Emergency Medicine Course for Medical Students

May 1, 2020July 10, 2020 ~ Arif Alper Cevik ~ 2 Comments

Dear colleagues,

I hope this message finds you well in the busy and risky days of COVID-19.

As known by most of you, the International Emergency Medicine Education Project has been providing free emergency medicine educational resources for medical students since June 2018. Currently, content produced by 175 contributors from 27 countries reached thousands of students from 197 countries around the globe.

COVID-19 pandemic made many differences in our lives. Education is no exception to this. Because of the pandemic precautions, medical students miss their normal course of education. This may be a bigger issue in countries lacking e-learning options. Therefore, we have been thinking of ways to help students and educators who might be needing such a resource.

As some of you might know, we were already planning to start a MOOC for medical students in upcoming years. However, COVID-19 forced us to fasten our plans. We have been working for a solution to help students and educators, who lack the means to continue their education activities. Finally, we managed to create a platform: iem-course.org. This platform is designed to provide free online emergency medicine courses for medical students.

In this platform, we activated the first course, “Emergency Medicine Core Content Course.” It is a 4-week course, covering 11 core topics of emergency medicine. The course includes video and reading assignments, multiple formative quizzes. In addition, if students prefer to receive a course completion certificate, they can take the summative assessment at the end. The reading assignments are curated from freely available online resources (e.g., iEM Education Project 2018 eBook and Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s CDEM Curriculum chapters). Videos are provided by Lecturio, and all emergency medicine videos (200 items) are freely available for students who join the “iEM/Lecturio Emergency Medicine Core Content Course.” All students around the world are free to register and use the resources provided in this course.

We hope that this course may help students and educators to overcome educational challenges related to pandemic. We consider this initiative as our responsibility to our international community in these difficult days. We thank all emergency medicine societies, organizations and institutions that endorsed and supported us since the beginning. We are grateful to our contributors, who made creating a project like this possible by writing chapters, providing images and videos. If you are interested in contributing, please let us know by e-mail.

iEM Course is a social responsibility initiative of iEM Education Project

Also, we would like to remind you of other iEM project resources below:

iem-student.org is the main hub of the iEM Education project. Students can reach 2018 eBook chapters, blog posts, video, image, audio archives through this website.

Flickr image archive is where we share images and short videos provided by our contributors. All photos and short videos are free to download. You can use these items in your presentations and exams.

Youtube video archive is where we share clinical videos and interviews with world-renowned experts.

SoundCloud audio archive is where we share iEM 2018 ebook chapters recorded in audio so students can download and listen anytime and anywhere.

All iEM resources are cost- and copyright-free for all medical students and educators. Please share these resources with your students and colleagues in need. If you are interested in sharing your available resources through our platforms, please contact us. We are stronger together.

Best regards.

Arif Alper Cevik, MD, FEMAT, FIFEM

On behalf of iEM Education Project Team

For more information, please visit iem-course.org

Cite this article as: Arif Alper Cevik, "Free Open Online Emergency Medicine Course for Medical Students," in International Emergency Medicine Education Project, May 1, 2020, https://iem-student.org/2020/05/01/free-open-online-emergency-medicine-course-for-medical-students/, date accessed: October 1, 2023

Passion about “Airway Management”

March 9, 2020March 6, 2020 ~ Jule Santos, Brasil ~ Leave a comment

I have been passionate about learning and teaching airway management since I started practicing in the Emergency Department. As I learned more about the airway, I started to see a whole new world of knowledge to be explored. In fact, I felt a little indignant, because my college training had failed to teach me so much information necessary to manage the airway safely and responsibly in the emergency department. To fill the gap I perceived, I went to many national and international courses, and here are a few:

XXIII Difficult Airway Course: Theoretical – practical approach (2017) – Hospital das Clinicas, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, HCFMUSP, Brazil. https://www.e-inscricao.com/anestesiologiausp/vad
The Difficult Airway Course: Emergency (2018) – SCHUMACHER Clinical Partners, United States https://www.theairwaysite.com
The Difficult Airway Course: Emergency. Brazil Edition (2019) – SP https://omnicma.com
Cadaver Lab (2019) – Dallas, United States https://bemedinspired.com

Meanwhile, Dr. George Kovacs has been one of the biggest inspirations in my mission to learn and teach airway management, especially after I watched his spectacular lecture “The Psychologically Dangerous Airway.”

I learned he ran a course as a part of his “Airway Interventions & Management in Emergencies (AIME)” Project (http://aimeairway.ca). Learning from him became a big dream. And finally, in February, I managed to go to Halifax, Canada, to take the AIME Advanced course! http://aimeairway.ca

What to expect

The course offers some theoretical classes and plenty of space to practice with various devices. Each instructor supervises 5 or 6 trainees. All trainees rotate the stations to practice each skill on varying airway difficulties.

The highlights of the course include:

Real-like Practice: “Nothing is closer to the human body than the human body itself.” Even the best mannequins fail to mimic human anatomy and conditions required to practice airway microskills, in terms of space, weight, and pressure. Therefore, participants of the AIME advanced course practice skills on cadavers donated to the Human Body Donation Program at Dalhousie. Learning with cadavers makes all the difference!

Also, I must mention that all instructors are very receptive and fun, and interactions between students are excellent.

The only shortcoming of this course is that it lasts only one day.

So you may ask, “But is awake intubation worth learning even if I work in the Emergencies Departments in Brazil (or other resource-limited contexts for that matter)?” Well, reviewing the advanced airway anatomy and indications for interventions always help to improve practice. If where you work has a video device or fiberscope, you will benefit most from the course. If not (Most EDs in Brazil today don’t), taking the course is a good reason to ask your manager for buying affordable alternatives like VividTrac®, King Vision® or Airtraq®. Also, awake intubation may be performed with Direct Laryngoscopy; however, it does not make much sense to me considering the main indication: an anatomically difficult airway.

Finally, I recommend the AIME advanced course to everyone who wants to improve their skills and learn how to manage the airway in the awake patient.

If you are interested in airway management, here is another course I can recommend: PRACTICAL EMERGENCY AIRWAY MANAGEMENT https://www.ceme.org/content/practical-emergency-airway-management-november-2020

Cite this article as: Jule Santos, Brasil, "Passion about “Airway Management”," in International Emergency Medicine Education Project, March 9, 2020, https://iem-student.org/2020/03/09/passion-about-airway-management/, date accessed: October 1, 2023

Pursuing clinical research as a medical student

February 28, 2020February 28, 2020 ~ Temesgen Beyene, Ethiopia ~ Leave a comment

It all started as an undergraduate medical student.

I am an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care at Addis Ababa University, College of Health Sciences. As an Emergency Medicine physician, I am committed not only to develop my clinical skills in the Emergency Department but also to improving my skills in clinical research, which all started as a final year medical student during my undergraduate studies.

Emergency Medicine (EM) is a completely new specialty in Ethiopia by the time when I have started to pursue my specialty training, with not much research base exists to support our practice. Clinical research done elsewhere is rarely relevant here and many of the research questions asked elsewhere do not apply in our setting. As the practice of EM develops in Ethiopia, research to support that practice must develop also. I wanted to become an expert in the field of clinical research, so I can lead that development.

While I was having my three poster presentations at the International Conference on Emergency Medicine (ICEM 2016) in Cape Town South Africa and also participating in a two-day pre-conference workshop in Research Methodology, I heard news of my acceptance for a one year Harvard Medical School Global Clinical Scholars Research Training Program 2016/17.

This was after my own web-based search and application for clinical research training in addition to my residency training.

Global Clinical Scholars Research Training Program (GCSRTP) offered by Harvard University Medical School Office of Global Education is highly competitive clinical research training for clinical research scientists from all over the country. I am one of 113 advanced trainees from around the world selected for their ability and interest in pursuing clinical or epidemiological research. Students are drawn from hospitals, clinics, and academic communities globally and bring the unique perspective of their home country and institution to address research issues in a clinical or population-based setting.

This is a year-long intensive program is designed for clinicians and clinician-scientists aimed to achieve three goals:

To build skills in clinical research,
To provide knowledge to address issues critical for success in contemporary clinical research, and
To develop a global network.

The GCSRTP consists of three on-site workshops (two in London, UK, and one in Boston) as well as 85 online lectures, 5 team assignments, 20 quizzes covering lecture content, a midterm and a final exam, as well as 2 or 3 interactive webinars per month in biostatistics, epidemiology, biostatistical computing, ethics and regulatory approaches, leadership, applied regression, longitudinal analysis and correlated outcomes, survey design, causal diagrams, and advanced quantitative methods. Additionally, I have selected an elective and a concentration and completed my own course work related to those tracks. The program requires an original research proposal as a Capstone Project. Graduation from the program relies on successful completion of this project. And thus, I had successfully completed my capstone project titled Diuretics Options in Acute Coronary Syndrome as a requirement for my successful graduation.

Through the Harvard Medical School Tuition Reduction Program, I was able to negotiate a 50% reduction in the usual tuition of $11,900 for the program. Additional expenses for travel and accommodation and supplies were my responsibility.

How all of the above came into fruition as a start base from my undergraduate study in Medicine?

There was a medical student mentorship research program of the Medical Education Partnership Initiative as a part of the NIH funded grant in 2013. For the same, I have assessed an undergraduate medical student’s clerkship rotation in Emergency Medicine as an Ethiopian experience. This paper, which was also published in the African Journal of Emergency Medicine, was a gateway for all of my clinical research experiences to date. There is a blog post about my clinical research experience in the same journal as well as I was a speaker on the most recent African Conference on Emergency Medicine in Kigali Rwanda, 2018.

My subsequent future as a clinical researcher:

I completed my residency in January 2018. With the skills developed in the GCSRT and my clinical qualification, I was well-positioned to apply for further clinical research fellowship at Addis Ababa University and got accepted for a Junior Faculty Research Fellowship under an NIH funded grant of Medical Education Partnership Initiative 2019-2020. I hope to begin developing research projects, possibly multi-site within Ethiopia that will address the many questions that are relevant to Emergency Medicine as it is practiced in our low-resource setting.

Cite this article as: Temesgen Beyene, Ethiopia, "Pursuing clinical research as a medical student," in International Emergency Medicine Education Project, February 28, 2020, https://iem-student.org/2020/02/28/pursuing-clinical-research-as-a-medical-student/, date accessed: October 1, 2023