Author Archive: Greg Hall
Greg is a graduate of Western University and directory of emergency department ultrasound in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. He is a clinical associate professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
He is a co-author of the Point-of-care Ultrasound for Emergency Physician textbook and director of the EDE3 course.
Two bad things at once
A female patient in her 60s arrives at the emergency department via EMS with acute CP and SOB. The history is consistent with cardiac ischemia and the EMS ECG shows clear inferior ST elevation with reciprocal changes. You call the cath lab and they review the ECG and agree to take the patient immediately. Vitals […]
EDE 3 is almost here!
EDE 3 is almost here! Two days of leading edge point-of-care ultrasound goodness and fine powder skiing in beautiful Sun Peaks B.C. We have assembled over 15 gurus to introduce eager clinicians to the latest and greatest applications. How is this for an itinerary? RV and wall motion assessment Valvulopathy Transcranial Testicular Appendix, bowel obstruction […]
EDE 3 Course at Sun Peaks
Sun Peaks EDE 3 was sold out but we have been able to get some more instructors and more machines so we have opened a few new places at the course Feb 4-5th 2015. Feb 4-5 2016 The biggest single course of its kind is getting ready to go! 15 Instructors, 15 machines, 40 […]
My twinkle is better than yours
Case courtesy of Dr. Joel Turner, Fellowship Director EM Ultrasound, McGill University: 59 year old male with a previous history of renal colic presents with severe LLQ pain, and mild dysuria. He had no fever, no GI symptoms, and was a non-smoker. His urine dipstick was positive for red blood cells. No gross hematuria. While […]
Do your consultants believe your scans?
I would like a show of hands, or emoji hands, as to how many of you have consultants who will act on your findings without further imaging. There is a learning curve and a trust that has to evolve in most consultative processes. You get enough calls correct and the trust hopefully begins to grow. […]
Troubleshooting Foley catheters
I firmly believe nurses should be trained to use POCUS to trouble shoot Foley catheters. It is not that rare for a difficult Foley insertion to result in a small amount of urine return and then no further drainage or the balloon fails to inflate easily. More often than not, the Foley is still in […]
How often do you use POCUS?
Dr. Gordon shares the findings from just three recent ED shifts. There are many negative and indeterminate scans here but it provides a glimpse into how POCUS is included in the thought process for risk stratification and clinical decision making. This patient complained of R flank pain. POCUS revealed a normal kidney, uterus and pelvis. […]
Do you use M-mode much?
There are two types of EM POCUS users, those that use M-mode all the time and those that rarely use it. As a POCUS educator I teach M-mode for various applications but admit that I apply it sparingly, often using the “eye-ball” technique for cardiac and pulmonary scans. When it comes to impact on […]
Advanced application certification update
So you have been using the core POCUS applications for a while. You have your CEUS IP certification and you supervise scans for students and colleagues when you have the chance. But you aren’t content with your core skill mastery. You attended an advanced application course like EDE 2 and are using many of these new scans […]
Ultrasound for skull fractures
Go to Ken Milne’s The Skeptic’s Guide to Emergency Medicine to see his podcast on using ultrasound to diagnose skull fractures featuring yours truly as a guest. Ken leads the charge for using social media to educate the medical masses. Not only does he run the SGEM podcast but is a member of the Best […]
Recent Comments