Emergency Procedures

The Emergency Procedures App

A group of clinicians from Sydney, Australia have completed the first edition of a FOAMed Emergency Procedures App. It is accessible on desktop browsers.

The app is targeted at clinicians performing procedures within the emergency department. It is designed to help those training and as a memory aid for experienced clinicians. It is based on the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine (ACEM) syllabus, providing standardised recommendations for common emergency department procedures with the aim to reduce variation in practice and provide an evidenced-based methodology to assist providers to perform procedures safely and competently.

The first iteration contains structured written guidelines for 100 procedures most with video. It is a living document and will continue to grow. Check us out and feel free to email the team with any questions, criticisms, suggested improvements, new entries, ideas or videos.

Interview with the lead authors

**Transcript of the ‘podcast’ interview, which has subsequently evaporated into the ether…For the sake of brevity, and in the absence of sound John = James and replies are in quotes.

Today we are chatting with James Miers and John Mackenzie, the two lead authors of the Emergency Procedures App. James and John are both emergency medicine specialists at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, Australia. John also has a sideline gig as a hyperbaric medicine consultant…

What was your most important objective when designing the app?

To provide high quality, evidence based procedure guidelines and education for use at the bedside and freely available worldwide.

Is the website/app FOAMed?

Yes, its FOAM, it is free to use and always will be. Aim to have low to no barrier to entry for maximal dissemination and use.

Why did you make the Emergency Procedures app?

Primarily we wanted to produce a high quality accessible procedures tool at the bedside. We felt a structured, evidence based, peer reviewed open access tool had not been built – and it needed to be…

…because you might need to do your first lateral canthotomy, when there is no one to help. Because when you do your 100^th LP, but the first in 6 months, it’s still good to have help. Because we are a bit strange and enjoy using our spare time to do this stuff….

How do you make a guide and video?

We try to combine the best evidence with the best common sense.

We have independent authors who follow a review structure looking through International and National (NZ, AU) guidelines, ED textbooks, Key Papers, Local guidance, and FOAM. Drafts are then reviewed by Editorial, Sydney and State panels.

The final draft is sent to a couple of expert groups and then finalised for review by the ACEM educational panel. Then we make a video to match. After that, we make immediate changes in response to good feedback and otherwise review everything on a 3 year cycle.

Will it help me pass my exams?

Yes, it will. We will teach you to perform procedures well.

We can stop you realising you have forgotten a scalpel only after you are scrubbed.

We give you the list of complications to discuss during consent, and remind you where to place the needle in the middle of the night when you only have 2 minutes

I notice you are partnered with the Government! I bet that has helped strengthen the governance and reach of your application whilst ensuring rigorous standards, maximising efficiency and minimising problems due to the organisation expensive experience with this type of thing?

No comment

Can I help?

Yes, every page of the App has our email contact.

Help us write, help us film, help us improve.

We reply to everything.

Very good, now can you create a montage of examples for the blog….

Here is a montage of some of the procedures from the Emergency Procedures App

References

• Emergency Procedures APP – iteration deux
• LITFL Procedure database (early stages…)