Web Alert
Site offers up-to-date clinical solutions
Vital signs
Site:
Jeff Mann’s EMguidemaps
Address: http://emguidemaps.homestead.com/JeffMannEMguidemaps.html
Are you tired of long-winded, frustrating Internet searches when you need specific information to solve a clinical problem? EM Guidemaps is a unique web site created by an ED physician, with the goal of providing clinicians with problem-solving information for acute clinical conditions in a hurry.
"A neophyte ED physician always needs to have quick-to-read’ medical information constantly available," argues Jeff Mann, MD, an attending ED physician at a community hospital, who developed the site that features 49 guidemaps. "There is often insufficient time to search for medical information in the classic textbooks of emergency medicine."
The free "eMedicine World Medical Library" site (www.emedicine.com) was the inspiration for Mann’s web site. "The on-line textbook provides up-to-date medical information in a very easy-to-read format. It is the model that gave rise to my own idea of a practical emergency medicine guidemap site," he says.
Mann created the web site after he suffered "burnout" from 20 years of full-time ED practice. He notes that the guidemaps, although researched comprehensively, are not peer-reviewed or edited.
The guidemaps do not supply enough information to answer complex clinical questions, which require a detailed medical literature search, he cautions. "My guidemaps are designed to be problem-solving tools, and they are not designed to act as mini-emergency medicine textbooks." He adds that the guidemaps are updated immediately if Mann learns of any new information that is relevant to the topic.
The guidemaps are diagnosis- and symptom-based, and include advanced cardiac life support, resuscitation, medical, neuro-ophthalmological, obstetrical-gynecological, toxicology, trauma, anatomy, and EKG interpretation topics. Mann chooses subjects that are especially challenging, such as neurological cases, or difficult to remember, such as toxicology cases. "I will probably not cover many common diseases, such as pneumonia, or topics that require extraordinary expertise," he notes.
The guidemaps can be useful in "real time" ED practice, if clinicians take the time beforehand to familiarize themselves with the content, says Mann. "If you quickly review their contents, you can later refer to them when you need to rapidly look up medical information without wasting too much time," he explains.
Source
For more information about EMGuidemaps, contact:
• Jeff Mann, MD, Telephone: (908) 832-0864. E-mail: [email protected].
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content