By David Hoffman DO
FOAM: Free Open Access Meducation
Heard of it?
Overwhelmed with resources?
Not sure where to get started?
This blog is for you.
Mission Statement
Our goal is to provide a filtered and concise list of free resources available online that can be easily accessed. The vision is that every month, this series will release an array of interesting, prescreened, resident-focused online content for your perusal.
Below you will find an initial “Starter Kit” to get you going. You’ll find some top resources and below each, a section titled “strengths”, which highlights where to focus your energy within each site.
FOAM: Starter Kit
Online
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Life in the Fast Lane “LITFL”
EKG building blocks, FOAM, Critical Care Content -
Academic Life in Emergency Medicine “ALIEM”
Paucis verbis cards & tricks of the trade. PV Cards are invaluable, concise bullet pointed approaches to a wide variety of topics. -
Radiopaedia
Encyclopedia of searchable radiology with emphasis on visual diagnosis and ability to scan through images -
Orthobullets
Categorized by body region with included images, assessment and treatment -
Amal Mattu via Youtube
Quick videos with systematic approaches and case-based learning. Moved to a paid site, ecgweekly.com, but the archived videos are still available on YouTube. -
USC EM Education
Shameless plug but a resident-focused site with core content videos, blog highlighting education pearls and career tips, and a digestible rundown of what’s happening in the online EM community. You’re here now, so look around! -
Twitter
@FOAMstarter–Geared toward the FOAM beginner
@FOAMhighlights–a digest of popular FOAM resources; will help you identify more people to follow
@ALIEMteam–Academic Life in EM twitter handle
Apps
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WikiEM
Huge database to reference on the fly while on shift -
Evernote
Organize your “2nd brain” in a systematic way while also having the ability to upload files, pictures, add your own drawn pictures, etc. -
Google Translate
Help translate on the fly or build your vocab word by word while on shift
Podcasts
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EM Basic
The Basics of EM: Steve Carroll’s “boot camp guide” to approach common chief complaints -
EMCRIT
A more in-depth, critical care oriented podcast -
EM:RAP
By far the most popular but a largely paid podcast, EM:RAP recently unlocked a ton of content for free
There are many, many more amazing FOAM resources out there, but hopefully this list gave you an easy way to confidently jump in!