Disaster day: a simulation-based competition for educating emergency medicine residents and medical students on disaster medicine.

Background: Disaster medicine is a growing field within the specialty of emergency medicine, but educational training typically focuses on hospital drills or other educational strategies, such as didactics, simulation, or tabletop exercises. With the success of gamification in other medical education applications, we sought to investigate if a novel gamified curricular innovation would lead to improved test performance and confidence in the ability to manage a real mass casualty incident (MCI).

Methods: This was a prospective observational study of medical students and emergency medicine residents who participated in a 4-h simulation-based competition consisting of 4 unique stations.

The Effect of Hyperventilation Syndrome on Ionized and Serum Calcium: A Case Presentation in the Emergency Department.

Hyperventilation syndrome is described as a constellation of symptoms that are typically benign but can become a medical emergency in the setting of severe metabolic derangement secondary to shifts in a patient's pH. A 36-year-old male with a history of intravenous (IV) drug abuse presented to the emergency department (ED) in distress, complaining of diffuse muscle cramping with tetany and peripheral vasospasm. This case report discusses his initial ED testing and treatment when ionized calcium was low and serum calcium was high.