Vanderbilt Internal Medicine Residency Podcast · Jared Freitas and Terra Swanson

S7: E2 Mnemonics in Medicine

·28 min·1 clip

Failures means forgot medication, anemia, ischemia, lifestyle, renal failure, embolism, stenosis.

1. Vanderbilt Internal Medicine Residency Podcast S7: E2 focuses on mnemonics in medicine as practical tools for diagnosis and workup. 2. Michael, Braden, and David speak as internal medicine residents, and Michael also cites the Vanderbilt Internal Medicine book and a MICU case. 3. The episode asks how mnemonics can make daily inpatient and outpatient decisions more systematic. 4. Michael introduces vitamins for altered mental status and walks through vascular, infectious, trauma, autoimmune, metabolic, iatrogenic, neoplastic, and systemic causes. 5. He says vitamins works when a patient is altered and the team needs a diagnostic timeout rather than a narrow answer. 6. He gives a recent MICU example where the team used vitamins and found catastrophic APLS with CNS involvement. 7. Braden shifts to failures for heart failure decompensation and says the mnemonic is already in the Vanderbilt Internal Medicine book. 8. He maps failures to forgotten medication, anemia or arrhythmia, ischemia or infection, lifestyle, upregulation of cardiac output, renal failure, embolism, and stenosis. 9. He says the first four letters cover the heavy hitters, while the later letters capture problems that should not be missed. 10. The group then contrasts Hattie B’s and Prince’s while talking about hot chicken, and they mention breast quarters, tenders, and spice levels. 11. Michael later introduces CIGI CAPS as a depression screen he uses in a geriatric VA PCP clinic. 12. He describes asking about sleep, interest, guilt, energy, concentration, agitation, and suicidal thoughts without initially labeling the visit as depression screening. 13. The same section ties a positive screen to behavior health referral or medication discussion. 14. Braden presents the five I’s for DKA and says he learned it during an overnight MICU shift. 15. The five I’s include infection or inflammation, ischemia, iatrogenic causes such as pump failure, intoxication, and impregnation or pregnancy. 16. He says the mnemonic helps guide a full DKA workup, including chest X-ray, blood cultures, abdominal imaging, troponin, EKG, alcohol level, beta hCG, and endocrine help. 17. The tone is conversational and resident-to-resident, with repeated examples from the wards, the MICU, and outpatient clinic. 18. The format is a short commuter-series discussion that moves from food banter to several bedside frameworks. 19. Internal medicine residents and trainees building bedside diagnostic habits. 20. Listeners looking for broad medical theory without practical mnemonics.

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