Since 2012, during every SHM Annual meeting, the PIT (Physicians in Training) Committee, runs a track called Early-Career Hospitalists which caters their content towards students, residents, and early career hospitalists. This year the PIT committee graciously asked fellow hospitalist, Dr. Dennis Chang, as well as Dr. Daniel Ricotta, a colleague from Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston, to present at the 2019 SHM Annual Meeting in National Harbor, MD.
Their presentation was titled:
A Whirlwind Tour of Famous Landmark (Articles): Must-Know Literature to Impress Your Peers and Attendings.
After previously giving an Updates in Hospital Medicine presentation, feedback from students and residents who really enjoyed the talk wanted to know more about articles from the past that changed how physicians practice hospital medicine. The overall goal was to summarize landmark articles and help people both apply it to practice and give hospitalists a way to quickly teach about these articles.
From a list created by the PIT committee, Drs. Chang and Ricotta picked articles that hospitalists most commonly see such as pneumonia, sepsis, deep vein thrombosis, and congestive heart failure.
They choose 6 total articles with 2 fun articles that they titled “quick hits”:
- High-Flow Oxygen through Nasal Cannula in Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure (NEJM)
- Duration of Antibiotic Treatment in Community Acquired Pneumonia (JAMA Internal Medicine)
- Treatment of Venous Thrombosis with Intravenous Unfractionated Heparin Administered in the Hospital as Compared with Subcutaneous Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin Administered at Home (NEJM)
- Transfusion of fresh frozen plasma in critically ill patients with a coagulopathy before invasive procedures: a randomized clinical trial (Transfusion Practice)
- Goal-Directed Resuscitation for Patients with Early Septic Shock (NEJM)
- Corticosteroids for severe sepsis: an evidence-based guide for physicians (Annals of Intensive Care)
- Aggressive Fluid and Sodium Restriction in Acute Decompensated Heart Failure (JAMA Internal Medicine)
- Diuretic Strategies in Patients with Acute Decompensated Heart Failure (NEJM)
“I thoroughly enjoyed putting together this talk as it gave me an opportunity to read these articles again in depth and to work with another hospitalist at a different institution. Every time I read an article I learn something new that helps me take better care of my patients. For example, it has become standard of care that we treat community acquired pneumonia (CAP) for 5 days. However, in the article almost 80% of patients received a fluoroquinolone. This won’t change my practice of 5 days for CAP but it is an interesting factoid. And now I certainly will not salt and fluid restrict my patients with acute systolic heart failure. Overall this was an incredible enjoyable experience, and I hope to be able to give further talks at the SHM annual meeting next year.” – Dr. Dennis Chang
Dr. Chang has been a member of the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) since 2008 and named a fellow of SHM in 2013. Since 2013, he has been a member of the SHM Physicians in Training (PIT) Committee.