Listener Woody asked (again) about good sites for EKG practice. I’ve looked around and come up with a few suggestions and gotten a few ideas from other listeners as well. First of all I’d like to stress that all of us need to work on skills maintenance all of the time. It is the reason for our continuing education requirements.

First a plug for the MedicCast Extra premium site.  The MedicCast Extra site has a whole series on cardiac emergencies, ACLS philosophy, and EKG reading.  Visit MedicCastExtra.com to learn more about the site.

Now, on to the rest of the links and resources.

EKG reading is a skill that is no different. For most of us, we look at monitor readings all of the time. But how often do you see some of the rare but critical heart rhythms. It is a good idea for all of us to review our common and uncommon heart rhythms on a regular basis. Practice makes our assessment and diagnosis skills sharper and may save a patient’s life down the road.

Here are the suggestions:

1. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Medline site on arrhythmias has a good resource for starters and general information.
2. Check out the EKG learning section over at EMS Village with helpful definitions and animations on heart function and rhythm definition.
3. Here is an interactive site from Merck on abnormal heart rhythms that is a good resource for review and includes a variety of possible treatment drugs for each.
4. Longtime listener Helen sent this one in as well. Emergencyekg.com
5. ECG Wave Maven includes a quiz mode
6. Blaufuss Medical Media Site for ECG Learning and Heart Sounds, too!
7. Chris Black, a good friend of the MedicCast offered this software package from Mad Scientist Software on ACLS and Heart Rhythm identification and treatment. Chris says, “I’ve used this stuff for years. It’s the best thing out there. It’s entertaning as well as very informative. The Code Team software is all anyone will need.” Thanks, Chris!

I recently returned from the New Media Expo. The expo was a great opportunity to meet other podcasters and spread the word about the Science Podcasters site. Here are my impressions and a few of the people I met. My goals for Science Podcasters were to invite other science and medical podcasters to join the site and to run the Medical podcaster’s meet up.

I’ll start off with the Medical Podcaster’s meet up which was held on Friday morning before the Will It Blend keynote. In attendance were:

• David Van Nuys (Dr. Dave) from The Shrink Rap Radio Podcast
• Shwen Gwee from the Med 2.0 Podcast
• Matt Gunn and Carina Stanton from AORN (Association of periOperative Registered Nurses)
• And me, Jamie Davis from the MedicCast and Nursing Show podcasts.

Also in attendance at my invitation were the guys from RawVoice.com. They are working to help arrange avenues for advertising in the medical and science space. They are all podcasters themselves and run the Blubrry Podcast community. They offered some insights into promoting podcasts, gaining listeners, and attracting advertising.

The group discussed how we marketed our podcasts and we all decided that we should do more cross promotion between medical and science podcasts. Dr. Dave offered to interview others on any psychological topic or to be interviewed on someone else’s show. The folks from AORN are just getting started in podcasting for their membership and welcome input and crossover promotion.

Also discussed were methods of gaining and assessing audience and website statistics. The Raw Voice team has a pretty good statistics package in both a free and a premium version. Barry Kranz from Raw Voice also suggested Quantcast.com as a way to gain info on site traffic. Other statistics sources included Podtrac’s free stats program and the resources available through Libsyn.com and Wizzard Media.

There were also some discussions about the gathering of survey information about listeners. Survey Monkey came up as a service that offers both free and paid services. Also, both Wizzard Media and Podtrac offer advertiser surveys for podcasters.

In addition to the Medical Podcasters Meet up, I also had an opportunity to talk with many other science and medical podcasters, including Donovan Steutel from ScienceAudio.net and Robert Frederick from Science Magazine. I invited them to check out the Science Podcasters site and consider joining in the cross promotion of their podcasts and sites.

In the NME exhibit hall, I found many vendors focused on helping podcasters to use online video. For those of us in the education sector, there were several options available in both software and hardware. Since I was speaking about using podcasting and new media in higher education, I was interested in ways lecturers could record their classes for later use by students.

Two software options stood out for the education marketplace. On the individual podcasters or instructor level there was Profcast from Humble Daisy software. This is currently a Mac only application but a windows version is on the way. For institutional uses, there is Panopto.com. This software package may be free to educational institutions under their charter from Carnegie Mellon University where it was developed.

The expo was a huge success from my viewpoint and I can’t wait for next year’s show. If you are a science or medical podcaster, you need to make plans to attend next year’s show.

I’m often asked about where I get the information I put out there on the show each week as well as here on the MedicCast EMS blog. As a paramedic in a rural emergency medical services system, reading is often the best way for me to stay up to date on the current changes in emergency medicine.

A few of the best blogs out there offer some solutions. Check out the blog roll links in the left column for a few choices. There is no substitute for an authoritative and well supported journal. We’re lucky in the EMS arena in that we have access to two excellent monthly magazines that support the EMS community.

Below are links to the Amazon Store where you can check out and subscribe to Jems or EMS Magazine.

Emergency Medical Services Magazine

Jems: Journal of Emergency Medical Services

Check these out the next time you are looking for a good resource for EMS News (besides the MedicCast podcast and website, of course).

(disclosure: These links are part of the Amazon affiliate store for the Nursing Show and part of what you spend does come back to help support the Nursing Show site.)

This video is a sample of the videos in the MedicCast Extra site. Each video is accompanied by a downloadable version, a printable pdf student handout page for notes, and an audio version for listening in the car or while working. This video segment is all about pharmacokinetics and is part of a larger, nearly 20 minute segment on an introduction to EMS Pharmacology.

Check it out here and also on your favorite internet video sites.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

I recently added this video plus some other extras to the Pediatric Assessment page on the MedicCastExtra.com site. You can watch the video on YouTube and you can subscribe to the MedicCast Extra site here.

In a recent post over at the MedicCast Forums (forums.mediccast.com), listener Adam posed the question about good resources for 12 lead ecg education. Jennifer posed one answer over there, as did I, and I decided that this one might be of interest to others who don’t usually visit the forums.

Here’s my pick for the best book resource:

I would most highly recommend Bob Page’s 12-Lead ECG for Acute and Critical Care Providers. Click on the Amazon Link here to get the book delivered now. Bob offers one of the most entertaining and informative seminars on 12 leads via his MultiLead Medics program. His classes are always humorous and educational and you end up reading hundreds of 12 leads in the course of his program. His book is a bit dryer in nature simply because it is a book and he was restrained from presenting his usual wit and commentary by the publisher.

Jennifer’s suggestion is a good one, too. Although I have not read it myself, I have heard good things from other providers about it:

Dale Dubin’s Rapid Interpretation of EKGs.

Dale Dubin’s book is also available in a Spanish language version if that is something you might need:

Interpretacion de ECG/ Rapid Interpretation of EKG’s.

I hope that helps out some other folks out there in the MedicCast community. I’ll try to add more study aid links like this to other posts here on the MedicCast.

You will also find some additional resources over at our friend Jim Hoffman’s EMS-Safety.com site at this link.

Two South Carolina teen EMTs have a lot to be happy about. They won a national EMT competition. The competition, hosted by the Health Occupations Students of America National Leadership Conference, included a written test followed by a scenario involving the treatment of two patients.

The two new EMTs competed against 50 other teams from around the country and were stunned when they won. Check out the full article here.

The MedicCast of medical podcasts out their congratulations to all who competed in this competition for EMS excellence, especially the winners. It is programs like this that raise the level of EMS service to the level of Medical Professional. Look around in your communities and find out how you can work to raise interest in similar competitions at the local level. Encourage providers to hone their skills to a razor’s edge.

It’s what is expected of us by the public we serve. Most importantly, it’s what we should expect of ourselves!

Silent Killer Stalks Programmers and Travelers

(get back to this page by typing MedicCast.com/dvt into your browser)

Podcasters and online radio producers are joining in the fight to stop a silent killer stalking computer programmers, international travelers, and anyone who spends long periods of time immobile. A public service announcement about the dangers of DVT (deep veinous thrombosis) is airing on hundreds of thousands of computers thanks to the efforts of the TWiT.tv network and the collaboration of two medical and science podcasters, Jamie Davis of the MedicCast Network and Marc Pelletier of Futures in Biotech.

Listen to the PSA Here

Right click here to download high quality aiff file.

DVT is a blood clot that usually forms in the leg veins after someone has been immobile for a period of time. Sometimes this clot can break loose and travel to the lungs forming a pulmonary embolism. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), between 200,000 and 400,000 people develop DVT each year in the U.S. and more than half of those people develop pulmonary embolism which kills one third of the people it affects. The good news is that for many people, DVT is completely preventable by getting moving every hour or two.

The following people are at increased risk for forming one of these life threatening blood clots:

* Injury to the vein, often caused by fractures, leg injury, or recent surgery
* Slow blood flow, often caused by confinement to bed, being seated for long periods (especially with crossed legs)
* Increased estrogen, often caused by birth control pills, hormone replacement, or recent pregnancy
* Certain chronic medical illnesses, such as heart disease, lung disease, cancer, or inflammatory bowel disease.
* Other risk factors include previous DVT, family history of DVT, advanced age, obesity, high blood pressure, and smoking.

Prevention tips from the CDC and mentioned in the PSA include:

* Move around as soon as possible after being confined to bed, such as after surgery, illness, or injury.
* Talk to your doctor about wearing graduated compression stockings (support hose).
* When sitting for long periods of time, such as when traveling for more than four hours:
- Get up and walk around every 2 to 3 hours.
- Exercise your legs while you’re sitting by:
Raising and lowering your heels while keeping your toes on the floor
Raising and lowering your toes while keeping your heels on the floor
Tightening and releasing your leg muscles
- Wear loose-fitting clothes.
- Drink plenty of water, and avoid drinking anything with alcohol or caffeine in it.
* Talk to your doctor about medication (anticoagulants) to prevent or treat DVT.
* Exercise regularly, maintain a healthy weight, and don’t smoke.

Podcasters and media organizations interested in downloading and using this public service announcement may download it and access the CDC links here. Permission is given to use the recording in its full, unedited form. Other uses may be allowed by contacting the authors, Jamie Davis or Marc Pelletier.

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Marc Pelletier, PhD, is the host of Futures in Biotech, a podcast featuring interviews with leaders in the biotechnology industry. Explore the world of genetics, cloning, protein folding, genome mapping, and more with the most important researchers in biotech.

Jamie Davis, NREMT-P, BA, ADN is the host of two of the most popular medical podcasts, the MedicCast, for emergency services providers, and the Nursing Show, for nurses by nurses. Both can be found at the MedicCast Network site.

The MedicCast is always looking for ways to partner with other high quality EMS sites out there.  That’s why I was very happy to hook up with Jim Hoffman over at EMS-Safety.com to help out with his NREMT Skills Video project.

Called the NREMT Audio Video Showcase, the program features a step by step video on how to get through the different NREMT BLS and ALS skills exam stations with audio from the MedicCast NREMT Test Survival CDs.  I am very pleased to be working with Jim on this project and look forward to doing so on other projects in the near future.

Check out these very helpful study tools for you all to use with your upcoming NREMT skills exams.  I am confident that they will offer you that edge you’ve been looking for!

From the American Heart Association:

CPR and AED Awareness Week (Click Here for Info)

June 1–7

Heroes aren’t born. They’re trained.

Each year an estimated 166,000 lives are claimed by Sudden Cardiac Arrest, an electronic malfunction that causes rapid and chaotic heart activity.

• Only about 6 percent of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest victims survive.
• Fewer than 1/3 of cardiac arrest victims receive CPR.
• Effective CPR can DOUBLE or TRIPLE survival rates.
• A recent AHA survey shows few Americans are confident they could actually perform CPR and use an AED to help save a life in an emergency cardiac situation.

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