Greetings from Norway!! 🇳🇴 Amit and Jeff once again return to the GE Healthcare Block Box, this time at the ESRA25 meeting in Oslo! In this episode, we chat with Athmaja Thottungal about her motivation behind a career change, the value of healthcare coaches for preventative health, and some practical tips to chill out and engage in a "digital detox". Following that, we talk with John McDonnell and hear his thoughts on blocks new aaaaand not-so-new (and he teases us with some yet-to-be-published hints about a knee block he's working on...). Two incredibly insightful guests, two adequate hosts. Enjoy!

Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care!

Links:

🔗 International Board of Lifestyle Medicine: https://iblm.org/

🔗 Institute of Integrative Nutrition (Where Athma got her coaching certification from): https://www.integrativenutrition.com/

🔗 The article on psoas sheath block that John and team published: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40386030/

Two amazing interviewees in one deee-licious episode! The uber-impressive Ki Jinn Chin from the University of Toronto shares his ASRA "origin story", his thoughts on how regional anesthesia really does incorporate elements of artistry, creativity and improvisation, how long a YouTube video SHOULD be, and what he's doing with spinals these days. Following that, the always inspiring and engaging Amanda Kumar joins us from Duke University where she shares her experience with high-fidelity simulation, the use of cognitive aids, how to practice ultrasound-guided needling at home, and why she loves cat memes.

Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care!

In this fascinating episode, Amit and Jeff interview Dr. Jordana Garbati, an “emoji-ologist” 😎 who has researched and lectured internationally about the use of emoji as language. For something we use every day, we sure had a lot of questions: are we using these correctly? Are there ways to be misinterpreted? Is it ok to emoji your boss? What emoji are useful in communicating with colleagues or patients? If you’ve ever wondered how emoji get chosen to be on your phone, or if you wanna understand how luxury brands and birdwatchers are using emoji, then stay tuned.  🧠💉🧊🔥🎙️🤓🧀🤦‍♂️

Dr. Garbati's University of Toronto profile: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/isup/people/jordana-garbati

Dr. Garbati's lab website: http://thescrl.com/

Dr. Garbati's LinkedIn page: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/jordana-garbati

Dr. Garbati's X/Twitter: @DrGarbati

Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care! 

Our two hosts sit down for a stimulating (yes, intended) conversation with Kwesi Kwofie from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, who gets down and dirty about needle nerve contact and nerve injury. Where exactly should we put the needle when performing a supraclavicular brachial plexus block? Or...is the supraclav dead?!! Why is periplexus preferred over intraplexus when doing interscalene brachial plexus blocks? Oh, and Kwesi might just win the joke contest. But wait, not to outdone, we follow up with Kristopher Schroeder from the University of Wisconsin, who educates us about raaaaaanch dressing, cheese curds, and gets us thinking about artificial intelligence and anesthesiology--is it ok to use generative AI to write a reference letter for a colleague? What is 'sentiment analysis' and do we have to read the whole paper anymore? Can AI help in decision-making surrounding transfusion practices? For all this and much much more, tune in to this fascinating episode.

Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care! 

Amit and Jeff continue their fascinating dive into the mind and life of Admir Hadzic, author, innovator, founder of NYSORA, brewer of fine beer, bassist and sports car nut. In this episode we discuss standardization in regional anesthesia, the future of textbooks in medicine, how sedated DO patients really want to be for nerve blocks, what it's like to drive a Ferrari to your next gig, and (because we don't shy away from cont-rah-versy, Admir's passionate thoughts and feelings on why there IS a difference between spinal and general for hip fracture and where some of the recent data may be more harmful than helpful for patients. 

Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care! 

Amit and Jeff are still (!) sweating it out in the block box, and have the good fortune to be joined by three wonderful guests: Stuart Grant from the University of North Carolina, Steve Coppens from the Catholic University of Leuven, and Gary Schwartz from Maimonides Medical Center in NYC. We cover such topics as peripheral nerve stimulation for looooong term pain control, the value of the ESP (and where it might just be hype--I'm talking to you, bunionectomy), the struggle of teaching residents AND fellows in the same institution, and cryoanalgesia of the cuties and intercostal nerves and what that means for patients both before their operations and after. Oh, and maybe why you shouldn't let your colleagues (or your trainees) stick needles in your back...

Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care! 

He's the founder of NYSORA, a rock-blues bassist, and a lover of fine beer and finer automobiles. We had a ton of fun chatting with Admir Hadzic about the his origin story, how he has been able to reinvent himself and his focus, and how to NOT live your life in "thirds". Over three decades, Admir has built a global educational brand while running a highly efficient regional anesthesia service in New York and now Belgium, and he shares his secrets on how he's been able to build a team, create value, and not get bogged down in things that aren't moving the mission forward. Cheers! 

Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care! 

Our star-studded guest list continues live from the GE Healthcare Block Box at ASRA Spring 25! In this episode we interview Ed Mariano, Eleni Moka, and Michael Bullock, and get their answers to such questions as: What platforms work best for social media? How do we bring RA education to under-resourced parts of the globe? What is the mechanism of tourniquet hypertension and what's a clever trick to obviate that? Why is Jeff so $&*# at accents? And more! No cuts, no edits, no bleeps -- just hard-hitting investigative journalism and--oh, wait, I'm being told that's not what we do. Either way, enjoy!

Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care! 

Wine, flamingos, and a glass box…this is NOT your typical BILIH episode...Amit and Jeff join you from the ASRA Spring Annual Meeting 2025 in Orlando, Florida, where they recorded live interviews with over a dozen influential thinkers in regional anesthesiology. Join us as we chat and laugh with James Kim, Sandy Kopp and Nadia Hernandez over discussions of POCUS, probe covers, catheters, the NEW anticoagulation guidelines, and much much more!

Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care! 

Clear!!! In the exciting conclusion to our two-parter on blocks in emergency medicine, things get real as the co-hosts debate Arun and Andrew over the ideal block for hip fracture, a slick way to reduce a shoulder dislocation, cheeky femoral blocks, and the role of fascial plane blocks in the ED. 

Links:

The sponsor of this episode is GE Healthcare Venue Family of Ultrasound Machines: https://tinyurl.com/gehealthcarevenue

Article on spontaneous reduction hip dislocation after PENG block: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39781033/

Blockheads website: www.blockheads-em.com

5 Minute Sono: https://coreultrasound.com/5ms/

POCUS Atlas: https://www.thepocusatlas.com/

Join us each month for another sassy conversation about anesthesiology, emergency medicine, critical care, POCUS, pain medicine, ultrasound guided nerve blocks, acute pain, and perioperative care!