As an emergency medicine (EM) practice management consultant I”m frequently asked “How can we determine what’s fair to pay for physician administrative duties?”  It’s an emotional subject in every group because it involves the discussion of each member’s relative value to the business enterprise side of the practice.

What practice-changing medical research have you come across on Facebook? What amazing EM career opportunities did you discover on LinkedIn? What enlightening medical conversations have you had on Twitter? There’s a good chance the answers are none, none and none. When it comes to meaningful physician-physician interaction, online social networking has yet to really take off.

The laryngeal mask airway has revolutionized routine anesthesia and has become the default rescue airway for difficult intubation and difficult mask ventilation. The King LT and Combitube have advantages for prehospital and tactical use, but they are not effective conduits for tracheal intubation.

Although we used to have any drug we needed at our fingertips (regulatory interference notwithstanding) today we don’t. So, what has changed? Have they run out of the rare “zine” compound that is needed to make Compazine, or the “tron” in ondansetron? Hardly! We can only order what the pharmaceutical companies are willing and able to produce.

Privacy advocates are pushing electronic record vendors to create a new class of “sequestered” health information, which could hide critical data from emergency physicians when they need it most.

Expansion of the Medicaid rolls under the Affordable Care Act has caused more than one state to look at ways to cut healthcare spending. In Washington State, the result has been a clash between physician groups and state health agencies that could to be a sign of battles to come.

Randy Jotte is ready for a challenge. An emergency physician at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and an associate professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Jotte is competing for Missouri’s vacated 2nd Congressional seat.

When Broadway composer Jonathan Larson collapsed the night before the opening of his magnum opus, Rent, it set in motion a series of errors and unfortunate ED encounters. The result was a multi-million dollar lawsuit and many lessons learned the hard way.   
An Excerpt from Chapter 4 of Bouncebacks! Medical and Legal

What would you do? A new book dissects “bouncebacks” in the emergency department, turning nightmare ED scenarios into Holmesian teaching cases.

John McGoff, MD, is an emergency physician from Indiana who has spent his career running a community emergency department, serving in the Air Force National Guard, and serving in a variety of civic leadership posts. In 2008, McGoff – frustrated by the poor leadership in his district – attempted the Herculean task of unseating a 13-term congressman from his own republican party.