September 2003: What's New on Medscape Critical Care?
As this article is being written, we are gearing up for another busy fall conference season. There are a number of excellent critical care programs being planned at this moment. The next conference on our radar is the 16th Annual Congress of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine taking place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 5-8, 2003. That is followed closely by Chest 2003: 69th International Scientific Assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians, taking place in Orlando, Florida, October 25-30, 2003.

Be sure to take advantage of the conference coverage that we have posted this year. If you have not already done so, you can still get CME/CE credit for CHEST 2002: 68th Annual Scientific Assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians, 32nd Critical Care Congress of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, 23rd International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, 13th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, and Coverage of the 99th International Conference of the American Thoracic Society.

If you wish to find out about other critical care meetings, look at our Conference Calendar listings in the Conference Center section of the Critical Care site.

If you are looking for other educational activities on Medscape Critical Care, we have a Clinical Update on "Improving ICU Survival in Cases of Severe Sepsis Using Drotrecogin Alfa (Activated)," one on "Effect of a Catabolic State With Involuntary Weight Loss on Acute and Chronic Respiratory Disease," and one entitled: "Therapeutic Potential of PDE4 Inhibitors in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease."

We also have several CME Circle features that will also allow you to earn education credit. These include: "Therapeutic Challenges in the Management of Nosocomial Pneumonia" and "Preventing Health-Care-Associated Infections Caused by Staphylococcus aureus.

In our News CME section, we have one item entitled: "Linezolid Treats Resistant Gram-Positive Infections in Children." We also have another News CME item entitled: "Conventional-Intensity Better Than Low-Intensity Warfarin for VTE Prophylaxis." To earn credit, read the news article and take the posttest.

The Sepsis Ask the Experts program continues to be a popular feature on Medscape Critical Care. The most recent questions concern "Hypertonic Saline in the Treatment of Sepsis" and "Use of Drotrecogin Alfa (Activated) in Septic Patient With Small Bowel Perforation and Peritonitis." We have also just posted some new items for the Critical Care Ask the Experts program. We have one item on "Patient Presenting With Fever, Vomiting, and Abdominal Pain" and another on "Use of Plasmapheresis for Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura." As we go forward, you will continue to see new questions and answers posted as they come from our expert panel. If you are a physician and wish to ask a question on the topic of critical care or specifically sepsis, go to the Medscape Critical Care home page, scroll down to the "Discussions" section, and select the "Submit a Question" link.

In addition, we offer a number of specialized topic areas, called Resource Centers, that focus on hot areas of research. The Sepsis Resource Center is one such area. We also have one devoted to chronic kidney disease and another on disaster and trauma. Be sure to visit these and other Resource Centers.

We have a number of new posting from our Publisher's Circle partners as well as from other sources. From Medscape's own peer-reviewed journal, Medscape General Medicine, comes a newly posted letter to the editor entitled: "A Eulogy: Personal Reflections on Dr. Peter Safar."

Last month's edition of From the Editor included an article entitled: "Erythropoietin Mimics the Acute Phase Response in Critical Illness," which should have been attributed to the journal Critical Care. From the same journal, we have recently posted an article entitled: "Acid-Base Status of Critically Ill Patients With Acute Renal Failure: Analysis Based on Stewart-Figge Methodology." From the journal Nature Medicine, we have an article on "Attacking Pain At Its Source: New Perspectives on Opioids." From Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine we have an article on "Eosinophilic Pleural Effusions" and one entitled: "What Size Chest Tube? What Drainage System is Ideal? And Other Chest Tube Management Questions."

The Critical Care Journal Scan continues to provide a monthly review of interesting and topical journal articles from specialty and general interest journals. To get a quick look at what has been published recently in the field, take a look at the latest Critical Care Journal Scan. The current Critical Care Journal Scan provides a review of articles on use of NIPPV in COPD, alveolar recruitment with PEEP in ALI and ARDS, C-reactive protein levels in MOF, reduced lung function and the risk of atrial fibrillation, and much more.

We also have the Medscape Critical Care Discussion Boards section where you can go to read your colleagues'' opinions on a number of topics as well as expressing your own. One recent discussion is on the effectiveness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. What is your opinion on this topic?

The Medscape Critical Care site now has a number of MEDLINE abstract collections that cover the latest abstracts on specific topics. The most current topics include "Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome," "Drotrecogin Alfa (Recombinant Human Activated Protein C) for the Treatment of Sepsis," "Severe Sepsis," and "Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease."

If you are a physician and would like to submit an interesting critical care-related case study that illustrates how you solved a vexing clinical problem, send it to me at Criticalcareeditor@webmd.net. The cases will be presented in an interactive format that links into the discussion section of the site as well, allowing users to comment on the cases.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns about what you see on the site or wish to suggest a new program that you would find useful, please feel free to email me at Criticalcareeditor@webmd.net. If you are experiencing technical difficulties, please contact our customer support staff at Medscapecustomersupport@webmd.net.