Making a medical diagnosis with limited information is at the heart of emergency medicine. Emergency physicians often have to make decisions without all of the information.  Dr Anand Swaminathan shares a case where EMS rolled into emergency with a patient who was short of breath, hypotensive, tachycardic and hypoxic. She had syncopized at a rehabilitation centre and by the time she got to emergency, she was seriously unwell and unable to provide much information. Dr Swaminathan shares the steps he took in diagnosing a patient who was too sick to go for a CT scan. His first piece of advice? Ultrasound is key. Ideally, we all want to have diagnostic closure before prescribing medication which could be harmful, however this isn’t always possible if a patient is too sick. So how do we make the call without a definitive diagnosis? Think about the exclusions, weigh up all the options and do what is right for the patient. For more head to: codachange.org/podcasts

The challenge of making a medical diagnosis with limited information

Coda Conference: Clinical Knowledge, Advocacy and Community.
Melbourne: 11-14 Sept 2022
codachange.org

Medicine

Science & Medicine

Health & Fitness

David Anderson describes the current state of play with airway management in the prehospital setting. There are important differences between airway management in the prehospital environment and airway management in hospital. Prehospital intubation has been practiced for over 50 years and continues to evolve, with many techniques and procedures devised from prehospital use finding their way into ED and ICU practice. The main indications for prehospital intubation are cardiac arrest and severe TBI. 3 large studies show no evidence to support prehospital intubation in cardiac arrest and this practice should probably be reserved for specific cases. Prehospital RSI for TBI remains controversial as the evidence available to date is conflicting and isn’t high quality. While scene time if often commented on, there is no evidence available prehospital RSI increases time to CT or OR for patients with a severe TBI. There is no evidence that any one craft group is better at intubation than any other. In order to make prehospital airway management as safe as possible, innovations such as checklists, kit dumps and pre-drawn syringes are common. Many prehospital services invest much more heavily in the training and maintenance of airway skills than in-hospital specialties. This session was recorded at the SAS workshop at CODA22 which took place in Melbourne in September 2022. For more information about the CODA Project go to: https://codachange.org/ 

Prehospital airway management

Adam Rehak and Gerri Khong walk through the good, the bad and the ugly of human factors in airway management. Using video footage of a highly realistic (tachycardia inducing) simulated airway emergency, the multi-stage case discussion canvases both audience responses and the input of a panel of human factors experts: David Brewster, Brooke Dench, Ben Meadley and Ian Summers, to illustrate that airway management is far more than just a technical skill. Instead, it will become clear that success is equally dependent on careful preparation, coordinated teamwork, precise communication and effective cognitive tools. This session was recorded at the SAS workshop at CODA22 which took place in Melbourne in September 2022. For more information about the CODA Project go to: https://codachange.org/ 

Human Factors in Airway Management

David Brewster describes the current state of play with airway management in the critical care setting, including a summary of the INTUBE study and the Safe Airway Society guidelines for airway management in COVID-19 patients. This session was recorded at the SAS workshop at CODA22 which took place in Melbourne in September 2022. For more information about the CODA Project go to: https://codachange.org/         

Critical Care Airway Management

This discussion discusses the use of ketamine in fibre-optic intubation.  This session was recorded at the SAS workshop at CODA22 which took place in Melbourne in September 2022. For more information about the CODA Project go to: https://codachange.org/ 

Airway Innovators 3 - Ketamine in fibre-optic airway management

Adam Rehak addresses confusion and lack of awareness around these combined techniques that are making their way into the armament of airway operators.  This session was recorded at the SAS workshop at CODA22 which took place in Melbourne in September 2022. For more information about the CODA Project go to: https://codachange.org/ 

The challenge of making a medical diagnosis with limited information

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