If you haven’t heard the term FOAM/FOAMed, then you are missing out on a wealth of online resources for medical professionals. FOAM stands for “Free Open Access Meducation,” and there are hundreds of physicians creating high-quality FOAM content to keep you up to date on the latest developments in healthcare. These are just a few of our favorite resources tailored to emergency medicine.
First10EM (a.k.a. Justin Morgenstern, an emergency physician based in the Toronto area) has a mission to “contemplate the necessary actions of the first 10 minutes in the resuscitation room” through simulated situations. Many of his posts consist of a hypothetical case (some recent situations involve delirium tremens, laryngospasm, and massive GI bleeding) followed by the most effective approaches for every contingency.
In addition to these simulations, Morgenstern collects and summarizes interesting current research in his “Articles of the Month” series. His “bottom line” summaries give you the key takeaways of the article if you don’t have time to read the whole paper or abstract.
The project of Texas EM/IM physician Salim R. Rezaie, R.E.B.E.L. EM stands for Rezaie’s Evidence Based Evaluation of Literature in Emergency Medicine. Rezaie’s blog focuses on clinical topics in emergency medicine and includes frequent collaborations with other experts in the field.
Rezaie also hosts the REBEL Cast podcast, which includes regular and guest contributors from the FOAM community. Try downloading this informative podcast for continuing education on your daily commute.
Academic Life in Emergency Medicine compiles the best clinical and educational blog articles in emergency medicine through a system of expert peer review. Their comprehensive database is organized by specialty to make it easy to find relevant, informative articles from experts in your field.
ALiEM also has a range of videos for instruction in ER procedures. These are a great resource for students and interns that prefer visual learning.
EMCrit is a biweekly podcast and blog that focuses on Maximally Aggressive Care and applications in Intensive Care Units. If you’re looking for highly useful resources on critical care, resuscitation, and trauma, then this is the place to go.
Housed within EMCrit are the self-described “Nihilistic Ramblings” of Rory Spiegel, MD, otherwise known as EM Nerd. With titles worthy of Edgar Allan Poe (see “The Case of the Erratic Pendulum” and “The Case of the Tell-Tale Heart“) these are opinionated, entertaining, and informative posts from a talented writer and physician, so check them out for a great read.
In this case, DOCs stands for “Developments,” “Oddities,” and “Controversies.” It also stands for emDoc’s creators: seven emergency physicians committed to the FOAM initiative. emDocs provides reviews and recaps of recent literature and conferences to keep readers up to date (Developments), presents unusual cases and uncommon diseases (Oddities), and posts well-defended arguments that go against the status quo (Controversies).
If you have a story to tell or an argument to make, you can submit your work to emDocs to be considered for publication. So if you’re interested in giving back to the FOAM community, this could be a great place to get started!
Advances in communication technology have made it an exciting time to be a part of the medical community. There are many more fantastic FOAM resources out there in written, video, and audio form, so why not take advantage of them?
If you have a favorite FOAM resource not listed above, we would love to hear about it! Please leave a comment about your favorite content creators in emergency medicine.