With the start of the year, we welcomed a new group of faces into our respective residency programs. We can all still remember how daunting it was to tackle learning the immense volume of material to be a great emergency medicine physician. We have so many amazing resources, but no road maps for where to start. The purpose of this list is to help guide the new interns as well as to highlight some resources that even the more seasoned clinician may find useful.
Look Before You Step
There is no doubt that when resources are used wisely, they can help strengthen foundations and build from core content. Perhaps the best overview of the resources available can be found in a 2014 Annals of Emergency Medicine resident perspective [pdf].
As useful and expansive as online education has become, you must first critically evaluate the blogs and podcasts out there. To do this consider the quality checklist as published in the Winnower and featured on ALiEM. An alternative evaluation tool is the Social Media Index (SM-i), which measures how well-visited a website is based on its Alexa Rank, the number of Twitter followers of the most prominent editor, and the number of website’s Facebook page likes. The score ranges from 0 which is poor quality to 10 which is high quality. The SM-i can serve as a surrogate to help the resident better understand what qualifies as a more trustworthy and reputable site. You will see in this article the SM-i listed in parentheses for each website where available.
Lastly, before you go out and buy a bunch of textbooks and pay for subscriptions to a number of applications, it is important to keep a few points in mind:
Does your residency already own a copy or a login to the particular resource that can be borrowed?
Is this a resource you are able to obtain by being an EMRA or ACEP member?
Does any other residents have a copy you can borrow?
Is this something that you can use residency educational funds to purchase?
Building Your Foundation
It is important to start with a solid foundation from which to build your knowledge base. To ensure you are adequately trained for all that may present to the emergency department, start with these resources:
Rosen’s Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice [Amazon link]
Tintinalli’s Emergency Medicine: A Comprehensive Study Guide [Amazon link]
Roberts and Hedges’ Clinical Procedures in Emergency Medicine [Amazon link]
EM Basic (SM-i 4.94):
EM Fundamentals
EMRAP C3: Continuous Core Content
Have you mastered the basics? What follows can be overwhelming for some. We are fortunate to have so many resources out there but this can also cause resource fatigue. Learn the basics first, then pick and chose what will help you continue to learn in the lists that follow.
Question Banks
These books can be helpful with preparation for inservice exams and the written boards.
Peer VIII
Rosh Review
ALiEM In-Training Exam Prep Book – free downloadable PDF book with questions
1200 Questions to Help You Pass the Emergency Medicine Boards [Amazon link]
Carol Rivers Board Review [Amazon link]
Weekly or Monthly Updates
Looking for your weekly fix of emergency medicine? Here are a few blogs and a podcast that gives great summaries on a scheduled basis.
EM:RAP
Life in the Fast Lane
The Original Kings of County Blog
University of Maryland EM Educational Pearls
Journals & Publications
If you prefer journals and peer reviewed publications, here are a few of the most popular. You can subscribe to the abstracts using any RSS reader.
Annals of Emergency Medicine
Journal of Emergency Medicine
CDEM – Critical Decisions in Emergency Medicine
Emergency Medicine Journal
Emergency Medicine Reports
Emergency Medicine Practice
Pediatric Emergency Medicine Reports
Searching for Specific Topics
A number of great websites publish medical content regularly, and are useful to search when you are looking for a specific answer to a clinical questions. Here are the most popular ones used with their Social Media Index included in parentheses.
Life in the Fast Lane (9.65)
Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (6.55)
Rebel EM (5.52)
St Emlyn’s (5.42)
EM Docs (5.34)
ER Cast (5.02)
Emergency Medicine Literature of Note (4.99)
CanadiEM
The Skeptics Guide to EM (4.92)
Core EM (4.35)
EM Lyceum (4.19)
Everyday EBM (4.12)
HQ Med Ed – video series (2.35)
WikEM
ALiEMU – Asynchronous, individualized interactive instruction (III)-eligible resources including CAPSULES, AIR, and AIR-Pro series
The NNT
Best Bets
MD Calc
NUEM
Emergency Medicine Cases
FOAMSearch
Critical Care
We are fortunate to have so many great critical care resources out there. Here are ones specific to emergency department management of the critically ill with their Social Media Index included in parentheses.
EMCrit (7.01)
Resus Me (4.78)
CCPEM – Critical Care Perspectives in Emergency Medicine (2.98)
Maryland Critical Care Project (1.58)
PulmCCM
EEACC – Essential Emergency Airway Care Course
Emergency Department Resuscitation of the Critically Ill [Amazon link]
Mastering the ECG
Are you looking to dive deeper into electrocardiography? Here are a number of resources to help strengthen your ECG skills.
Dr. Smith ECG Blog (5.82)
ECG Weekly (1.63)
ECG Library
ECG Wave Maven
ECGpedia
StripTease
ECGs for the Emergency Physicians 1 [Amazon link] and 2 [Amazon link] books
Pediatrics
Children are not little adults. There is much to learn in pediatric emergency medicine. Here is the list of pediatric resources, with two specific to pediatric emergency medicine.
PEM Blog (3.74)
Pediatric EM Morsels (3.37)
Don’t Forget the Bubbles (3.36)
Pediatric Emergency Playbook
PEM-ED
PEM Lit
Radiology
Reading images is a requirement for the well-trained emergency physician. Here are a number of resources to help us become novice radiologists.
ALiEM blog post reviewing radiology resources
Radiopaedia
Radiology Assistant
Introduction to Radiology (UVA Health)
Radiology 2.0 – One Night in the ED
Learning Radiology
The Whole Brain Atlas
Orthobullets – great source of orthopedics information
Accident and Emergency Radiology [Amazon link]
Critical Images in Emergency Medicine [Amazon link]
The Atlas of Emergency Medicine [Amazon link]
Simulation
If you are looking for some practice simulation cases, you cannot pass up these websites.
EM Sim Cases (1.95)
The Sim Tech
CORD Teaching Cases
Toxicology
Can’t get enough toxicology? Or perhaps you are on a toxicology rotation and looking for more resources. Here is a place to start.
The Poison Review (5.00)
Tox Talk
Goldfrank’s Toxicologic Emergencies [Amazon link]
Trauma
There are a number of trauma resources that are geared more for surgical residents. Here are two specifically for emergency medicine.
The Trauma Professional’s Blog (3.3)
Trauma Reports
Other Books
Looking for other books that have been particularly useful for residents? Here are some helpful ones:
Emergency Medicine Oral Board Review Illustrated [Amazon link]
Bouncebacks! Emergency Department Cases: ED Returns [Amazon link]
The Wills Eye Manual: Office and Emergency Room Diagnosis and Treatment of Eye Disease [Amazon link]
Ultrasound
Below are some ultrasound podcasts that are helpful.
*Note that some of the best ultrasound resources are mobile apps, which we have included in the mobile applications lists just below this section.
Ultrasound Podcast (5.01)
Ultrasound of the Week (4.41)
Sonospot (3.92)
5 Minute Sono
Mobile Applications
A number of mobile applications are useful for our practice. Some of these resources are great for education and learning, while others are helpful directly on a shift. For additional information on any particular application, the iMedical Apps website can be useful.
10 Second EM
iOS ($4.99), Android ($2.99)
ERres
iOS ($9.99), Android ($9.99)
WikEM
iOS (free), Android (free)
Basics of EM
iOS ($2.99), Android: Not available
Medscape
iOS (free), Android (free)
Epocrates
iOS (free), Android (free)
PEPID
iOS (free), Android (free)
EMRA PressorDex
iOS ($16.99), Android: not available
EMRA Antibiotic Guide
iOS ($16.99), Android ($16.99)
PediStat
iOS ($2.99), Android ($7.87)
Radiology 2.0 – One Night in the ED
iOS (free), Android: not available
Eye Emergency Manual
iOS (free), Android (free)
Eye MD
iOS (free), Android: Not available
Emergency Toxicology
iOS (free), Android: Not available
ACEP Toxicology Section Antidote App
iOS (free), Android (free)
CliniCalc Medical Calculator
iOS (free), Android (free)
MD Calc
iOS (free), Android: not available
Ultrasound:
SonoSupport
iOS ($9.99), Android: Not available
Pocket Atlas of Emergency Ultrasound
iOS ($69.99), Android ($69.99)
Emergency Medicine Ultrasound
iOS (free), Android: not available
Emergency Ultrasound Handbook
iOS (free), Android: Not available
One Minute Ultrasound
iOS (free), Android (free)
FATE Card
iOS (free), Android (free)
Where To Go From Here
The lists above are not meant to be all-encompassing and there is no doubt that new websites and applications are being produced all the time. Coming up with your own system and favorites will ensure you build on a great foundation.
References
Scott KR, Hsu CH, Johnson NJ, Mamtani M, Conlon LW, DeRoos FJ. Integration of Social Media in Emergency Medicine Residency Curriculum. Ann Emerg Med. 2014;64:396-404.
Colmers IN, Paterson QS, Lin M, Thoma B, Chan TM. The quality checklists for health professions blogs and podcasts. The Winnower. 2015;2:e144720.08769. Open access article
Thoma B, Sanders JL, Lin M, Paterson QS, Steeg J, Chan TM. The Social Media Index: Measuring the Impact of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care Websites. West J Emerg Med. 2015 Mar;16(2):242-9. Open access PDF.
(c) Can Stock Photo
Author information
E. Liang Liu, MD
Emergency Medicine Chief Resident
Department of Emergency Medicine
Parkland Hospital, UT Southwestern Medical Center
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