Arcadia Public Library

Explores the efforts of physicians to close the gap between best intentions and best performance in the face of insurmountable obstacles, discussing such topics as the ethical considerations of lethal injections, malpractice, and surgical errors.

Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot....

No one wants to go to an emergency department. While you can never protect yourself 100%, there are ways to help avoid having to make a trip there. Here, learn about the importance of cancer screenings, vaccinations, and taking medication. A little prevention, it turns out, makes a big difference..

It’s time for your last shift in the emergency department. In this closing lecture, Dr. Benaroch uses several case studies to help you review the big-picture lessons of good emergency care you’ve learned throughout the course—lessons that have opened your eyes to the excitement and challenges of emergency medicine and that can help you take better care of yourself and your loved ones..

Welcome to the night shift at an emergency department, where anything can happen. Through the patient cases in this lecture, you’ll get a deeper understanding of how emergency doctors think twice about a young man having a heart attack, a college student who is vomiting, and an elderly man who is having trouble walking..

Emergency department patients often aren’t ready to trust the doctors attending them, since they have just met. In this lecture, learn how doctors work with patients who aren’t completely forthcoming to build trust and coax out embarrassing—or seemingly irrelevant—details to arrive at the right diagnosis and get them the treatment they need..

You're a doctor 11 hours into your shift, and you've just walked into a waiting area packed with patients. There's an elderly man complaining of chest pain, a teenage girl whose arms are swollen with bee stings, and an ambulance bringing in two unresponsive kids from a car crash. What do you do next? In Dr. Benaroch's 24 lectures, experience for yourself the high-stakes drama and medical insights of life in an everyday emergency department: the most...

Definitive emergency care requires, first and foremost, a diagnosis. Visit a community emergency department that shares space with an urgent care center, and learn how patients like a 2-year-old with a persistent cough and a 49-year-old with a stuffy nose illustrate the importance of treating the cause—not the symptoms..

Emergency department doctors have to stay especially vigilant when dealing with patients who have traveled abroad¬—especially in the developing world. Find out how they handle uncommon diseases and infections transmitted by mosquitoes, sexual activity, and more. Then, visit a ski clinic for a peek at some other travel-related emergencies..