FOAMed, SMACC and PFC

I hate not knowing an acronym.  In my line of work acronyms are language and the ignorance of one normally results in the ignorance of entire programs or departments.  FOAMed is Free Open Access Meducation a term growing in popularity mostly in part due to the SMACC committee and it’s world wide network of Critical Care, Emergency Medicine and Prehospital care Cadre.  SMACC stands for Social Media And Critical Care. There are now a plethora of  podcasters known as “providers” who attempt to tackle the pressing problems of the aforementioned specialties while striving to educate, for free, the hungry Paramedics, Interns, residents and colleagues at large.  They are succeeding beyond what they thought possible and it is spreading to all facets of medical education.  The first SMACC conference was held in 2013 with the worlds most famous podcasters lecturing and fielding questions from the audience and twitter simultaneously.  It was hailed as the most inspiring and interactive medical conference and if you listen to the podcasts you will see why.  The second was held on the Gold Coast of Australia with even better results.

I have a minimum 40 minute drive to work and back each day and I have listened to no less than 3 of these SMACC Podcasts with a growing enthusiasm and admiration for the various authors,  Each of the 2 conferences was recorded with each lecture a separate podcast, leaving well over a hundred “best of” episodes to choose from. This means that all of the hard work and preparation and passion of each speaker can be relieved weather you knew about the conference or you were there and were in a separate concurrent session.  The third conference will be held in the United States for the first time in Chicago during the latter part of June.  Tickets are still available. Can’t make it or the session you want to see sold out?  It will soon after be on iTunes for all to download.

You may wonder what this has to do with Prolonged Field Care and TCCC.  There is a growing number of prehospital professionals, be they ER Docs, Nurses or Paramedics who now boast their own sessions at SMACC.  If you haven’t heard Cliff Reid talk about “How to be a hero” or “When to stop Resuscitation,” you really are missing out on another invaluable resource.  Prolonged Field Care at it’s most basic form is prehospital-emergency care combined with critical care mixed in with intensive, nursing and austere medicine.  As you will hear Scott Weingart profess to bring upstairs medicine downstairs, so should we but all over the world, no matter the shit-hole we find ourselves in.  The airway talks given by Rich Levitan or the Q & A panel and others will make you a better Medic just by hearing them.

I hope that we can continue to follow in their footsteps and support each other through free open access resources such as the PFC podcast and you tube site, position papers and recommended reading or checklists.

Click any of the links below and pick a couple episodes that interest you…

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If you would highly recommend other podcasts post them in the comments with a brief description and we’ll check em out and add em to this page.