Medical Docudrama: FEEDBACK WANTED 

Check out this promotional trailer for a forthcoming docudrama: Learning from out Patients

Antonios Liolios, a frend of ICN from Mount Sinai Hospital (NYC), has produced this trailer. It is the brainchild of Paul Barach, Julie K. Johnson and Helen Haskell.

This is a non-profit project that is designed to develop "transformative learning opportunities about improving healthcare from the perspective of the patient".

They will collect patient stories from around the world representing the continuum of care from hospital to home care.  Each case is a real event, told from the perspective of the patient or the patient’s family.

Using a multi-method, multi-media approach, patients and/or families from across the US, Europe, and Australia will be interviewed about their journeys, including their harm and healing processes. The interviews will be professionally filmed. The interviews will be analyzed and used to create a book of case studies, an interactive web site, and a documentary film focused on reforming healthcare.

They are after feedback to help with the film, and they are looking for people to help them finish the project.

Please give feedback here or contact them here.

 Anthony HOLLEY 

 Podcast: BURNS 

Is this the best podcast yet?

Many fear so.

Listen to Anthony Holley's fantastic presentation on burns that he gave at the Bedside Critical Care Conference 2012. This one had the audinece in stitches with Anthony's tear-inducing anecdote and really showcases how well they manage burns in Brisbane.

This talk was given at the Bedside Critical Care conference 2012.

Click READ MORE for the podcast and slides...

 Sim WARS 

 New Video: Santa gets ready for Christmas ... Critical care style

Christmas movie for SMACC 2013 from Rollcage Medic on Vimeo.

I've always loved stage production, especially lighting and set design, and if I couldn't work in medicine I'd probably get into movies. So now I'm living the dream with this entry submitted for the SMACC 2013 SimWars competition. I'd like to thank my parents and my agent, of course, my kids for helping me to make this movie, all the little people I've had to step on to get here ....

To all of our readers, twitter followers, podcast listeners and contributors, you guys make what we do worthwhile. Without all of you, we are just talking in an empty room. So we hope whatever you are doing over the next 10 days or so, whether you have been rostered to cover the unit or you are at home with friends and family, we hope you have a Happy Christmas and a safe and enjoyable New Year and try and keep an eye out for anyone who might be spending Christmas alone.

2012 thanks goes to David Boers for putting out (yep) great journal tweets via @I_C_N, Tim Southwood for organising the SIN events, Marianne and Matthew for starting up and running BIN and Cameron, John and co. for setting up and running VIN.

We hope you'll keep coming back to the ICN site and events in 2013 and remember, SMACC 2013, probably the best inter-specialty critical care conference ever in the history of all time is just around the corner. So enjoy your Christmas pudding and then get ready for SimFury, SonoGames and all manner of conference awesomeness.

Happy Christmas

Oli & Matthew

Ah, they're never far away are they? The next round of the CICM Fellowship written exams are on the way. If you can get to Sydney in the middle of February, help is at hand. Dr Arvind Rajamani is running his 9th Sydney Written Course and from personal experience, this is one that is worth getting to if you can.

It's a 2 day course aimed squarely at candidates who have done all of the prepatory work for the exam and are now looking to polish their technique and get a few insider hints and tips to give them an edge. One of the big pluses is being challenged to write exam answers under exam conditions and then getting feedback from experienced intensivists on how you can improve and harvest as many points as possible.

The course runs at Nepean Hospital, on Derby Street, Kingswood, in Sydney's west, between the 14th and 15th of February. For more details, contact Arvind at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or phone (02) 4734 2000 and ask to speak to him.

The course costs $150AU and the registration deadline is the 1st of February 2013

While playing in star-spangled departments with whizz-bang toys is great fun, many ED, ICU, anaesthetic and GP physicians indulge in the challenges of working at sports events. It might be volunteering time as team physician for your local football club, suturing cage fighters' injuries closed or, as in my case, hauling injured drivers out of competition race cars at circuits or in the outback. These environments can be quite resource poor. We mostly assume that what we do in our various departments is equally applicable to these other circumstances and in most cases it's probably reasonable.

Concussion occurs in almost all sports activities, except possibly lawn bowls, or darts, and on the surface of it there seems to be little trouble managing it. Until you start to scracth the surface a bit more.

I was invited to give a presentation on concussion in motor sport at the FIA Institute's Medicine in Motor Sport summit held in Istanbul at the beginning of this month, with the aim of highlighting some of the controversies of its assessment at an event and the difficulties in clearing a competitor for return to play.  I've posted a video of the presentation on my Rollcage Medic site and while it is tailored towards a motor sport audience (doctors, paramedics, engineers, administrators & others)  the principles can be applied to any sport. So I figured it put a link to it here for anyone who does a bit of sports medicine and might be interested. Comments are welcome.

Concussion in Motor Sport - Assessment and controversies

 Sim WARS 

 New Video: THE MESS IN VIRCHESTER 

Check out the latest SIMWARS entry...

Simon Carley's team from the St Emlyn's blog submitted this for the SMACC 2013 SIMWARS contest.
It features PACE, graded assertiveness, approriate feedback, basic sepsis management and a nice cup of tea.
COME TO SMACC!

smacc.net.au

• To see the other SIM WARS entries and vote on your favourite (the most views) look here.
• To submt your own video go here.

 Sim WARS 

 New Video: CODE BLACK 

Check out the latest SIMWARS entry from the Sim team in the Emergency Department of Royal North Shore Hospital.

The Royal North Shore Under 16's demonstrate workload prioritisation in a stressful resuscitation. Those of you not from Sydney (or Melbourne) may not know how catastrophic caffeine withdrawal can be...

• To see the other SIM WARS entries and vote on your favourite (the most views) look here.
• To submt your own video go here.

ICU consultant: "Yeah, we never thought the story sounded much like cholecystitis. The pattern was much more suggestive of acute alcoholic hepatitis, so we've been sticking with supportive treatment."

Well-read ICU senior registrar (He' is into FOAMed and all that kooky young person stuff!): "What's his Maddrey's discrimination factor?"

 Roger PYE 

 Podcast: ECMO DURING CPR 

Roger Pye is a world leading ECMO specialist.

This talk on starting ECMO during CPR resuscitation is serious and backed up by some extraordinary cases. Roger presents his experience and the literature on this topic.

This talk was given at the Bedside Critical Care conference 2012.

Click READ MORE for the podcast and slides...