The next time you’re wondering why you go out and teach the public at large CPR classes instead of spending that time home with your family, remember this story. Maine high school senior Joe Carroll saw a 4 year old go under in a local YMCA pool and when he didn’t surface, dove in to bring the boy out. When he removed the unconscious youngster from the pool he began with his CPR training until the boy was revived and woke up crying. The child was transported to the hospital and was released in good condition.

OK, soapbox time again:

This shouldn’t take me too long. Gang, get out there and teach CPR. Bring an AED along since it is becoming more and more likely that the bystander you’re teaching will be near one. I don’t want to transport another drowned 4 year old and neither do you. Thanks to trained first responders in the public, we may not have to. Don’t forget the foremost way of treating traumatic injury and death –

Prevention!

Check out this story and others like it on the MedicCast News at the Podcasternews Network. I’ve posted a new show today.

Jamie
The Podmedic

For emergency medical technicians and paramedics, getting a complete patient history including medications and past events can be a chore during an emergency. According to an article at EMS Responder’s website, that may become a lot easier soon.

When you walk into a home, the patient or a family member hands you a USB thumb drive. On it are patient records with meds and doses, past hospitalizations, and diagnoses. Add this to the info in an onboard laptop, updated from the station computer database with records of past transports, and providers in the field will have unprecedented access to patient records and will be much more able to provide advanced care.

Now picture the trip to the hospital. After contacting the doc via med radio, you push a key on the laptop and all of the data collected, including ekg strips, medications and interventions performed, and anything else of importance is instantly transmitted to the hospital. Now when the ambulance arrives, they are much more prepared for what you are bringing through the door.

There are many privacy issues with this type of program, including those associated with maintaining a national medical record database as proposed by the federal government. However, there is every reason to expect all EMS crews to have access to this type of information within the next 5 to 10 years.

Just some thoughts. What do you think?

Jamie
The Podmedic

The federal government is about to update the Digital Millenium Copywright Act to add more to the law the criminalizes the fair use of media you own.

If you like podcasts, like listening to and watching media where ever you are, if you own a computer then read on!
—————–
There is a post on the IPAC blog. It details the efforts of the RIAA and other media interests to push through a bill that will make it a federal offense to even own a program that MAY be used to break copyright or bypass copy protection even if you are using said software to create a back up of material you own or change the format of the media (CD to mp3).

This is often the same software that is used to produce or receive video and audio podcasts. This law may shut down the podcasting arena which is threatening mainstream radio and television programming (and the media companies’ bottom line). If you like receiving podcasts and content that you can choose then this law will affect you!

I urge you to contact your Congressional representatives via the links in the article on ipaction.org and tell them to stop making you a criminal when you have done nothing wrong.

You can also search for your representatives and senators at the sites below:
U.S. Senate Site
U.S. House of Representatives Site

Don’t let them take your podcast away!

Jamie
The Podmedic

Welcome to Episode 12 of the MedicCast

Right click to download this episode

Shownotes;
A podcast for EMT’s, Paramedics, and other medical providers of all kinds.

Don’t forget to vote for the MedicCast!

Contact Me!
send me a note!
MedicCast Website

Listener Mail

News:
Natala Rose Lowery died in line of duty.
Jim Vincent, a rescue helicopter pilot, died in line of duty.
FDA Tracking of Pharma Co.’s
Breaking bad news
Two articles about STEMI diversion
For Diversion
Against Diversion

Tip/Trick of the Week:
Documentation
Documentation Article at Jems.com.

Med of the Week:
Narcan (Naloxone HCL)

Don’t forget to support the mediccast!
(Vote, Click, Comment, Tell a Friend)

Thank you for listening in.
If you want to get a show update email, send me an EMAIL with “Update” in the subject line
Podsafe Music Network
This week –
“Your Love is Everything” by Don’t Harrass Betty
Checkout Don’t Harrass Betty Here

Let the artist know that you heard it here on the MedicCast!

Check out a promo for a podcast I recorded a segment for after the song!
The One Minute How-to Podcast

Until next time, Scene safety, BSI!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

A Cost Analysis of Research Studies.

I report on a lot of medical studies on the MedicCast news and on the long format podcast the MedicCast. Sometimes they seem frivolous to the public but you can never tell what info may come from a study. Many ill-informed people complain about the amount of money spent by the Federal Government on scientific studies. A recent article reports on the studies conducted in the past few years on stroke research talks about the long term economic impact of those studies on the public.

A study of 28 research projects regarding stroke clinical trials for drugs and treatment showed a total cost to the public $315 million dollars. That’s quite a large sum of money, but the startling number is yet to come. The return on investment as measured by increased wellness and reduced long term health costs was over $50 BILLION. That’s a whopping 4600% return.

Of more significance to the general public was the realized lifestyle benefits associated with the studies. The report calculated an additional 470,000 healthy years of life for Americans from these 28 studies alone! So the next time that a friend complains about government spending, point him to this article as a counterpoint to the idea that our money is being wasted.

Jamie
The Podmedic

Just posted a new MedicCast news at the Podcaster News Network. News about studies on drool, studies on remote CHF monitoring and even studies about studies!

Visit the Podcaster News Network and look for the  MedicCast News in the Health section.

Jamie Davis
The Podmedic

I got this announcement from the Maryland (USA) Poison Center. It has to do with an extremely potent opiate that has been causing a number of serious overdoses with at least one fatality. You can check out the Maryland Poison Center site here. There is a newsletter you can subscribe to by email as well as access to lots of great information on all sorts of poisoning related issues.

Here’s the text of the email newsletter I got from Pharmacologist Lisa Booze of the MD Poison Control Center:

******Opioid Overdoses in Maryland******

Wicomico County, MD, reported an outbreak of 6 opioid overdoses on Thursday April 20th 2006. Patients presented with respiratory depression, CNS depression and circumstantial evidence of IV drug use. Urine toxicology was negative in all 6 cases. Some patients responded to naloxone. One patient died.

A highly potent opioid (e.g.fentanyl, sufentanil, methyl fentanyl, remifentanil, alfentanil,…) was suspected.

New Jersey and Philadelphia have encountered similar cases during the same time frame.

Analysis by the Wicomico County Police Crime Lab of drug paraphernalia samples from Wicomico County and Somerset County revealed the following:
- 4/4 positive for fentanyl
- 4/4 positive for procaine
- 3/4 positive (very weakly) for heroin.

These results provide the first solid evidence that fentanyl was involved. There is still a possibility that a fentanyl analogue was implicated, but that determination has not been made yet. Clinically, this will not make a difference.

Fentanyl is a short-acting, highly potent opioid agonist. It is approximately 50-100 times more potent than morphine. Regional outbreaks of “super potent heroin” (e.g. alpha-methyl fentanyl) are reported in 1988 (Pittsburgh), 1992 (Philadelphia), and more recently in New York City.

Because of the extreme potency of fentanyl, a larger-than-normal dose of naloxone may be required for reversal of the opioid effects. If the patient is apneic, start with 2 mg naloxone IV every 2 minutes until 10 mg is reached. If there is no response to 10 mg naloxone IV, then fentanyl is unlikely to be responsible for the respiratory depression. Fentanyl will not cross react with the opiate urine toxicology screen.

++++++ She later sent this addition +++++++++++

I have since learned that the urine toxscreen of the fatal opiate overdose in Wicomico County was positive for opiates. Fentanyl will not produce a positive urine for opiates; therefore, it is likely that the positive result was due to a mixture of drugs that included heroin.

*********************

That’s all. Stay on your toes and watch out for this one!

Jamie
The Podmedic

The MedicCast was featured in Rod’s Pulse Podcast along with several other great medical field podcasts including one of my favorite’s, the Nursing Studio Podcast.

Check out his podcasting series about podcasting and other technology answers for educators. A great resource for everyone!

Episode 12 of the MedicCast is on the way. Look for it to be available late tonight!

Jamie
The Podmedic

A paramedic in Sussex, UK is producing first aid podcasts for the general public so they will have access to emergency advice during a crisis. Stuart Rutland came up with the idea when he realized that he took his hard earned knowledge for granted. The average person, he knew, did not have access to his experience and training in the middle of an emergency.

While there is no substitute for first aid and emergency training, Rutland hopes that the podcasts produced by the Sussex Ambulance Service will offer some help in the initial moments of a medical emergency.

Kudos to the members of this EMS service for their unique outreach service. Here’s a link to the original article.

Jamie
The Podmedic

Hey gang!

I was featured on the One Minute How To Podcast at the Podcaster News Network.

I do a 1 minute on stopping severe bleeding. It’s a cool idea for a podcast and I hope that George, the host, asks me to come up with another first aid how-to. Comment below if you have any ideas or send me a note!.

Check back here often for other news and MedicCast updates!

Thanks for listening!

Jamie
The Podmedic

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