Every year the world’s nine leading Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiac Care organizations compile their most up-to-date research to improve the current CPR and ECC guidelines. This year, 2019, the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation released the updated CPR and ECC guidelines near the end of November. "These annual updates," says AHA's website, "allow the rigor of a comprehensive review and expert consensus in as close to real-time as possible." So these newest "hot-off-the-press" updates will be critical in the coming months and years of your practice. They'll help you continue to stay sharp, be prepared, and stay on the cutting-edge of patient care and improved patient outcomes. Whether you're currently certified, or looking to get certified, here's what you need to know about these vital new updates.

Have you and your organization taken advantage of this amazing opportunity?

If you haven't heard, Best Practice Medicine, on behalf of the American Heart Association and the Helmsley Charitable Trust, is offering fully subsidized, Montana focused, Best Practices in Rural STEMI Care – The Mission Continues. This invaluable education improves care for our cardiac patients and bolsters the knowledge of providers, nurses, and EMS professionals. This clinical education program continues the mission and initiatives of the American Heart Association's Mission Lifeline program, started in 2014, paused in 2018, then relaunched through March of 2020. (Get started here!).

Bozeman, MT, October 11, 2019 - This just in: Best Practice Medicine, a professional medical education company founded in Montana, with locations in Flathead County and Bozeman, has launched a new division: Tactical Medicine (TAC-MED) Division. With that, a brand new course has been created, especially for the rural context: TECC-RE: Tactical Emergency Casualty Care - Rural Environment. For those who want to train and prepare for high-threat prehospital environments (urban or rural) or battlefield casualty scenarios, the new TAC-MED division seeks to thoroughly train and prepare all those interested in this field. Best Practice Medicine is proud to also be offering both Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) and Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) courses. (Click here for more information). 

Today, with Best Practice Medicine Co-Founder (and COO), Loren Deichman, and your BPM-TV host Miles Hackney, we'll be giving an in-depth description of how to place and obtain a diagnostic quality electrocardiogram. Quick trivia: Did you know electrocardiogram is abbreviated as both EKG and ECG? In German it's "Elektro-kardiographie"; in English it's "electrocardiography". An EKG is a record of electrical current in the heart over time. For many EMTs and Paramedics a 12-lead EKG is a vital tool in patient care. OK, let's dive in! Watch the video below or read on for the point by point training. 

Bozeman, MT, July 1, 2019 - This just in: Best Practice Medicine, a professional medical education company founded in Montana, has officially opened a new campus location in Flathead County, MT. With a main campus based in Bozeman, supporting a passionate team of over 50 educators, from Culbertson to Kalispell, this second campus will serve medical providers from Western MT, Northern ID, Eastern WA, and Canada. Strategically located at 600 Windmill Drive in Columbia Falls, the mountains of Glacier National Park within view, the campus will continue the mission of Best Practice Medicine, to bring high-quality medical education to all of Montana--and beyond.

Thanks for being a part of this awesome education community. Today we'll be continuing our exploration of splinting and immobilization of lower extremities. Remember, when performing any splinting intervention, we begin with manual stabilization of the injured part, followed by initial assessment of the patient's circulation, sensation, and movement (CSMs). Keep reading or watch our video to get the full scoop on splinting lower leg injuries. 

Thanks for joining us! This is Miles with Best Practice Medicine. Today's post is another in our series covering extremity immobilization and splinting. In this, and the next few posts, we'll be covering immobilization of the lower extremities, including knees, ankles, and feet, and the upper and lower legs. Watch the video or read along below!

So far in this series (view Part One here; Part Two here), we've given an overview of vital signs. In this next segment, we'll go into what they represent in terms of patient physiology and clinical significance. Watch the video below or keep reading to dive in.

This is the second installation of our 3-part overview of vital signs in pre-hospital settings. In this portion we will be talking about pulse oximetry, blood glucometry and the mental assessment scale AVPU. To review the content in the first installment on vitals check out our previous blog post: Learning and Obtaining Vitals Pt. 1 of 3. Watch our video below or keep reading for more.

Obtaining a good set of vitals early and often is a key role of pre-hospital life support professionals as it provides a trend to contextualize patient improvement or deterioration. Whether you're a brand new EMT or a seasoned EMS professional these are the fundamentals you want to learn and master. Today, we're going to be doing a brief overview of fundamental vital signs, what they represent, why they're important to our clinical practice, and how to obtain them. (Watch the video below or keep reading!).