Teach and Learn

Physical Exam Teaching

rcavalc — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:01:13 +0000

Yesterday I did physical exam rounds using Harvey TM. After orienting the residents to Harvey I taught about Aortic Stenosis, referencing the classic articles by Etchells and the JAMA RCE series on abnormal systolic murmurs.

AIMGP Seminar: Osteoporosis

rcavalc — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:37:04 +0000

Today in AIMGP we discussed osteoporosis (slides by Dr. Tile). A question came up of costs vs. benefits of Teriparatide. Any opinions out there?

ICRE Presentation

rcavalc — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:47:05 +0000

Just attended the ICRE Royal College Conference where I gave a presentation on the Morning Report Blog. This is a project that Isaac Bogoch started at TWH last year. We were able to evaluate it both through surveys and web traffic metrics.

[Could potentially upload conetnt (ppt or doc here; or link to content on blackboard]

Chronic Atrial Fibrillation: Goodbye INRs?

rcavalc — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:14:32 +0000

At journal club in September we discussed the recent trial of Dabigatran for Afib pulished in NEJM.

We had a good discussion about how this has the potential to change practice; whether patients currently well controlled on Coumadin should be switched and whether RCTs are adequate for assessing harm.

This last point was sparked by the experience with a previous direct thrombin inhibitor, Ximelagatran. Several large RCTs (including one on Afib) demonstrated non-inferiority of this drug compared with Warfarin, but post marketing data led to withdrawal of the drug due to high rates of liver injury.

Another unresolved issue is whether to adopt the higher dose of Dabigatran (160 mg od – with bleeding rates of 3.11% per year but potential superiority over warfarin in prevention of embolism) or the 100 mg od dose (lower bleeding rates of 2.71% per year, but potentially similar rates of embolism vs. warfarin).

Managing Information

rcavalc — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:04:06 +0000

This blog is a template for a project I am working on called the Scholar Portfolio. This will enable residents to post, share and comment on their scholarly activities. I hope it will also serve an exercise in lifelong learning.

Hello world!

rcavalc — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:57:00 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!