Beginning with our 25th anniversary course 6 years ago, the format of the "Critical Appraisal" course has been substantially modified. Using primarily the Emergency Medical Abstracts database of nearly 15,000 abstracts, and focusing on the literature primarily of the last five years, 28 presentations, each of 30-minute duration are presented along with four 90-minute faculty panels. The topics chosen to be addressed are determined by faculty input and feedback from prior registrants. Using largely a question/answer format, the focus of the course is the new, the controversial and the provocative. The course faculty synthesizes the literature and combine it with their clinical experience to provide participants with specific recommendations regarding diagnosis and therapy related to emergency care.

The target audience for this course is physicians, PAs and NPs who practice in emergency departments and who are seeking an evidence-based, literature-focused update in controversial areas of emergency care.

After completing the Emergency Medicine & Acute Care / A Critical Appraisal - 2012 program, participants will be able to:

• Discuss key points from the literature regarding leading-edge emergency medicine topics.
• Discuss literature-based recommendations for practice improvement.
  
• Effectively translate the acquired strategies into improved diagnostics and subsequently implement a better treatment plan for their patients.