Drawing from his experience, General Hertling highlighted 10 important tips for military leaders during a time of crisis, such as a war. As we in medicine are now at war with COVID, these tips would be well received and certainly strengthen our resolve during dark days to come.
One of my colleagues asked this critical question, “How are cath labs around the USA and the globe managing [ST-elevation myocardial infarction] STEMI and other cardiac emergencies in patients with suspected COVID-19 that would normally have resulted in a trip to the lab?"
An upcoming meeting organizer gave me the above title as a topic to talk about. Really? C’mon, I don’t hate fractional flow reserve (FFR); I can’t hate FFR (you all know that), but there are things that some people do hate about it.
Every day in the cath lab we see important and potentially life-changing or life-threatening scenarios involving patients with coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, or cardiomyopathy.
Being concise (i.e. brevity) is not as easy as it sounds. Mark Twain said, “I did not have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long one instead,” and it really applies to giving a very good 10-minute talk.
We should try to reduce contrast media in all patients and especially in those patients with impaired renal function, diabetes, or congestive heart failure.
