My first two lectures to the IM Intern Class of 2012

On July first I gave a lecture on IV fluids, total body water and hyponatremia. This handout is similar to the lecture I give to the medical students titled sodium and water. It adds a half baked section on potassium but this handout really needs to have th sodium section tightened up and shortened, the potassium section finished and short sections on the treatment of phos, magnesium and calcium disorders.

  • Here is the PDF
  • Here is the native Pages documentin case you use Pages and are interested in finishing this work in progress.

On July 9th I gave a lecture on acute renal failure. The handout is 28 5.5 x 8.5 pages. The book is designed as a workshop with questions and points for discussion throughout.

  • Here is the PDF of the 28 page handout. It is very readable and one of the best handouts I have put together.
  • Here is the native Pages document in case you use Pages and are interested in editing my masterpiece.

Student lecture on Acid-Base

I gave a lecture to the third-year medical students at Providence hospital on Friday. I thought the lecture went well but on saturday I was going over an admit note by one of the students in the class. The patient was admitted with DKA but had a combined metabolic acidosis and respiratory alkalosis. This student didn’t do the Winter’s formula calculation and missed the respiratory disease. Of course so did everyone else on the admitting team.

Frustrating.

Here is the handout. I added a couple of things since giving the lecture on Friday.

Update: I corrected a mistake in one of the delta bicarb questions. Sorry.

Acid Base Handout (Student)

Acid-Base lecture for ER residents

Yesterday I gave a great lecture on interpreting ABG results. I added a problems set for gap-gap analysis and added a section on the osmolar gap. I also improved the anion gap section with my new favorite nemonic. Forget PLUMSEEDS, forget MUDSLEEPS, forget MUDPILES. The new hotness is GOLD MARK:

  • M Methanol
  • A Aspirin
  • R Renal failure
  • K Ketoacidosis
This new nemonic was published in a letter in the Lancet (thanks vincent bourquin). I love that it drops the silliness of paraldehyde that no one uses anymore and drops isoniazid and iron which hardly ever cause an anion gap.
I also stumbled across a cool article on the sensitivity of the anion gap for lactic acidosis. Surprisingly an anion gap is only found in 58% of patients with an anion gap.
Additionally I cleaned up a bunch of the lecture. I still have not reformatted it for the iPhone so the handout is traditional 8.5×11 without a booklet form.

Sodium and Potassium for ER residents


Yesterday I lectured the St John ER residency program. The ER residency has an impressive commitment to education. They set aside a half day every wednesday for their resident to get dedicated didactic time. They have great attendance with a good number of attendings showing up.

I have been asked to give three lectures and yesterday was the first. I gave a double lecture (running time about 90 minutes) on sodium and potassium. The fact that I could run over the standard 50 minute alotment normally given for medicial education is due to the fact that they have blocked an entire afternoon rather than try to shoehorn a lecture into lunch or before rounds.

The sodium lecture was the first time I used the Sodium handout I created for the St John IM residents. I gave the lectuer Seder-Style with the residents reading different sections, answering questions and me adding commentary. The ER residents are smart and empowered to ask questions. I felt that there was great two-way interactivity.

Dont Panic Sodium

Sodium iPhone format
Sodium booklet format

The potassium lectuer is an abrdged potassium lecture which is stripped to the bare bones of differential and treatment. It is a traditional powerpoint lecture. Immediately when I started this lectuer I saw about half a dozen exhausted interns fall asleep. My next project is to create a potassium haggadah.

Potassium powerpoint

Calcium and the great case report

I gave my first lecture to the residents at Providence Hospital on Friday before Labor Day. I did a new lecture on calcium. I tried to base this lecture around this incredibly interesting patient I had a few years ago at St. John.

He was a young man who came in with a fracture due in part from his rip-roaring uncontrolled secondary hyperparathyroidism, which had actually progressed to tertiary hyperparathyroidism. We treated his hypercalcemia, got him a parathyroidectomy and then watched in horror as his hypercalcemia switched to hypocalcemia as part of a wicked case of Hungry Bone Syndrome. To cap it off he developed acute symptomatic hypocalcemia after meeting Alonzo Mourning.

On that one admission, in one patient my team got to see and study:

  1. Renal osteodystrophy with skeletal complications
  2. Diagnosis and management of Hypercalcemia
  3. Diagnosis and management of tertiary hyperparathyroidism
  4. Diagnosis of Hungry Bone Syndrome
  5. Management of severe hypocalcemia
  6. Relationship of ionized calcium to pH

I call it the greatest case report ever told and regarding calcium it probably is the best.

Again I provided the resident with a booklet and did the lecture Seder Style. This was the best use of that style yet.

Calcium Case Report

iPhone version

Acute renal failure: Seder Style

I gave the internal medicine residents of St John Hospital an ARF lecture Monday morning. This was a basic ARF lecture. No Powerpoint. I gave this lecture Seder Style. Every resident in the room read a paragraph or two. The Haggadah was a booklet-sized handout of 28 pages (8.5 by 11 sheet turned sideways with two pages per side so the 28 pages were only 7 sheets). Besides text and illustrations the booklet includes questions for discussion, case studies, and problems.

I’m pretty proud of it.

Booklet.PDF

iPhone version.PDF

The Acid-Base lecture for the residents of St John Hospital


Today I gave my second lecture of the year for the St John Residency.

I used my Acid-Base workshop handout and added a slide show to facilitate the large group.

I still called on individual residents to answer questions to keep them involved.

I started the lecture with some audience participation. My previous lecture on IV Fluids, diuretics and dysnatremias began with me stating how ubiquitous these subjects were.

I had everyone stand then I asked people to sit down if, in the last three weeks they had not:

  • Used any diuretics: no one sat down
  • Used any IV diuretics: about half a dozen people sat down
  • Used a thiazide diuretic to counter the effect of loop diuretic resistance: lost a lot of people there but still had about a dozen left
  • Used a lasix drip to counter loop diuretic resistance from heart failure: everybody sat down but about 3 residents and the amazing Dr. Dhungel, my first year fellow on the consult service.
  • Used torsemide instead of furosemide for better pharmacokinetics: only Dr Dhungel remained standing.

I then tried to repeat the excercise for IV fluids and dysnatremias but it didn’t work very well. Should have quit after the first one.

When I gave that IV Fluids, diuretics and dysnatremias lecture I didn’t have a hand out. In the last three weeks I have worked up a handout:

iPhone version
Booklet form