Bio-Med Expert Search Training

Hello campers,

We'll just be doing one question in Wednesday's session (during the first part of the reference meeting). Here's the case:

A previously healthy 8 year old with a history of wheezing comes in with back pain and a recent cough. A chest x-ray reveals a chest mass.

-Look for resources on differential diagnosis of back pain in a child, or anything else you think might be useful in this case.
-The diagnosis was Ewing's sarcoma. Look for overviews/reviews of Ewing's sarcoma (diagnosis, treatment,
prognosis, etc.). Also, look for some good patient-level information on Ewing's sarcoma that the physicians could share with the family.

Let me know if you have any questions. See you Wednesday at 10:00 in 555!

Liz

Posted by Liz Fine Weinfurter at 8:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello campers,

Our next Search Camp is Wednesday, 7/11 at 10:00 in 555. Search Camp will happen at the beginning of the normal reference meeting, so non-reference staff will be able to leave when Search Camp is done. We have a slightly shorter block of time this week, so we'll just cover one question.

Here's the case:
A 50 year old female presents with pain in her mid back and shortness of breath. The clinician suspects a thoracic aortic aneurysm, and would like some decision support resources. Especially:
1. Diagnosis and treatment algorithms for dissecting thoracic aortic aneurysm.
2. Information on the sensitivity/specificity of widened mediastinum on chest X-ray (CXR) as a diagnostic tool.

See what you can do with this. Remember, with these questions the point is to get to know our clinical resources so you can recommend good resources for an information need. You won't always be answering a specific question, though sometimes you will. The content will quickly be over your head, but that's okay - the clinicians are there to do the interpreting. Our expertise is in getting them to a likely source.

Work on it ahead of time so that you can pipe up with what you found - you MUST be sick of me yacking at you by now, so let's make this your show.

Let me know if you have any questions, and see you Wednesday!

Liz

Posted by Liz Fine Weinfurter at 6:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An infant presents with vague "spells." These types of resources would be helpful:
-Differential diagnosis (ddx) for "spells" or ALTE (acute life-threatening event) in infants
-Evaluation of an infant with spells/ALTE
-Presentation/ddx for seizures in an infant

Posted by Liz Fine Weinfurter at 7:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A 14 year old boy presents in clinic with five days of persistent headache. Find clinical tools to help support the physician.

Some hints - useful things include a differential diagnosis (ddx) list, which is a list of possible conditions that could cause persistent headache; guidelines on evaluating and treating headache in adolescents, etc. Try to anticipate the types of questions a clinician might have in this situation. Check out the "Resources for Clinicians" page, and the matrix I put together about our clinical resources (http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/help/guides/resourcesforclinicians).

Posted by Liz Fine Weinfurter at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)