Emergency medicine is a huge health subject and an important medical specialty.
Studying emergency medicine from pre-made Anki decks is one of the best ways to introduce yourself to core topics and achieve real mastery over the material.
The digital flashcards in each of the following decks can help you do exactly that!
Best Emergency Medicine Anki Decks
The decks we’ll be looking at are:
- New EM Deck: EM Basic (3rd/4th year medical students)
- Marigoldies EM Deck (based on EM Secrets)
- Hoops Drugs (rapid review of EM clinical drugs)
- Toca M4 (CDEM curriculum)
- Rosh Review (based on Rosh Review Q Bank)
- EM + POCUS Anki Deck (best for EM Inservice Exam)
Each of these decks is formatted and structured differently, suiting those with varied learning styles. They also differ in size, meaning some will be faster to run through than others.
We recommend taking a look at each and checking out the card examples first before downloading.
We’ve also included some helpful emergency medicine learning resources at the end of this article too!
1. New EM Deck: EM Basic
| Deck Name: | EM Basic |
| Cards: | 2668 |
| Card Format: | Basic |
| Year of Upload: | 2020 |
| Required Plugins: | Hierarchical Tags |
| Download size: | 1.9 MB |
| Download link: | EM Basic |
This deck is based primarily on the EM Basic Podcast (more on this later) and the EM Basic Pocket Guide as well as WikiEM and EMRA Antibiotics.
It covers the presentation, workup, and treatment for every common complaint in the emergency department.
The creator u/rokkdr used mostly cloze deletions but some cards have multiple deletions per card to keep the total card count down.
There are 2668 cards in total. Everything is hierarchically tagged and the main topic is in bold on each card.
Here’s how it’s categorized…
The Redditor recommends using this workflow:
- Listen to each EM Basic episode
- Unsuspend the cards for each episode as you go
This deck is ideal for 3/4th year medical students wanting to prepare for summer rotations but also for EM interns, EMT’s and anyone curious about emergency medicine in general.
Here is a sample flashcard for febrile pediatric patients:
Here is another example card on back pain:
2. Marigoldies M4 Emergency Medicine Deck
| Deck Name: | Marigoldies M4 |
| Cards: | 1372 |
| Card Format: | Basic |
| Year of Upload: | 2020 |
| Required Plugins: | N/A |
| Download size: | 52.1 MB |
| Download link: | Marigoldies M4 |
This deck is ideal for 4th-year medical students that are going into Emergency Medicine.
The Redditor u/Marigoldie converted all of EM Secrets into Anki format. It is a comprehensive summary of the key facts.
The deck consists of 1372 cards with additional information sourced from various areas such as UTD, EMCrit, and RebelEM.
There are some cards that are very specific which can be suspended if need be. The user recommends thinking of the deck as an interactive textbook rather than just simple flashcards.
The Extra section contains text, diagrams, flowcharts and photos to help you further understand a concept if you’re struggling.
The deck is structured by chapter, as below…
Here is a sample card from Chapter 32 (Cardiac Dysrhythmias, Pacemakers and ICDs):
This is another card from Chapter 18 (Syncope, Vertigo, and Dizziness):
Toca M4 EM Anki Deck
| Deck Name: | Toca M4 |
| Cards: | 539 |
| Card Format: | Basic |
| Year of Upload: | 2019 |
| Required Plugins: | N/A |
| Download size: | 1.22 MB |
| Download link: | Toca M4 |
Toca’s M4 EM Anki Deck is one of the more compact review decks on this list but is very useful for helping you study alongside the CDEM 4th year curriculum.
Made up of 23 sections, the deck is intended to be used alongside the CDEM online curriculum.
Some of the cards are arguably redundant (and it’s not complete) but it still provides a neat overview of emergency med.
Here’s how it’s categorized…
The flashcards in the deck are in cloze format, making them ideal for rapid review.
Here’s an example card…
4. Hoops Drugs
| Deck Name: | Hoops Drugs |
| Cards: | 866 |
| Card Format: | Basic |
| Year of Upload: | 2019 |
| Required Plugins: | N/A |
| Download size: | 136 KB |
| Download link: | Hoops Drugs |
This deck created by Redditor u/originalhoopsta consists of 866 cards with 765 of these geared towards Emergency Medicine.
It covers the high yield drugs encountered in anesthesiology, emergency medicine, and family medicine.
The deck covers contraindications, mechanisms, duration of action, dosages, other names, and drug interactions.
Here’s how the deck is categorized…
Here is a sample card on the contraindications for prescribing Cisatracurium:
This is another flashcard on the mechanism of action of Rocuronium:
5. EM Deck (Rosh Review)
| Deck Name: | EM Deck (Rosh Review) |
| Cards: | 1147 |
| Card Format: | Basic |
| Year of Upload: | 2019 |
| Required Plugins: | N/A |
| Download size: | 23.8 MB |
| Download link: | EM Deck (Rosh Review) |
This deck consists of 1147 cards formatted in back-to-front style.
It is based on the medical student question bank for Rosh Review Emergency Medicine so is ideal as a supplementary resource.
Unfortunately, the tagging/categorization in this deck isn’t the greatest. You’ll have to instead search and unsuspend relevant cards to your study session via the Anki browser.
Here’s a sample flashcard from the deck based on the tube thoracostomy procedure:
Here is another sample card on drug interactions:
6. EM + POCUS Deck
| Deck Name: | EM + POCUS |
| Cards: | 3257 |
| Card Format: | Basic |
| Year of Upload: | 2021 |
| Required Plugins: | N/A |
| Download size: | 155.1 MB |
| Download link: | EM + POCUS |
This is a newer deck geared towards the Emergency Medicine Inservice exam, however can also be used to honor the EM Shelf.
The deck contains 3257 cards.
A large variety of resources were used including:
- Tintinalli
- EM Cases
- Orthobullets
- SAEM
- Up2Date
- Radiopedia
- Rosh
- EMRA Core Pendium
All the cards are unique so there should be no difficulty with card corruption when downloading.
The deck is structured as below:
Here is a sample card from the TVUS section:
This is another card from the “Aorta and IVC” category…
Additional Emergency Medicine Anki Resources
Aside from the shared decks mentioned above, there is also some regional/exam-specific family medicine Anki decks worth checking out:
- Gandolfini Emergency Medicine FRCEM/MRECEM Revision – This 1120 card deck is intended for the MRCEM/MCEM examination parts A, B, and C. Perfect for UK students taking their medical finals!
- ACEM Primary Exam (Viva) – This 2191 card deck is hierarchically tagged and features past questions arranged by EDvivas.com. Unlike the recommended decks above, it misses the clinical building blocks, including radiology images and anatomy images.
Depending on how far into the subject you wish to go, each of these resources goes into varying depth.
Recommended Emergency Medicine Textbook
Emergency Medicine Secrets
This 768-page book, used as the basis for the first EM deck on this list, is an MS4 favorite. Designed as a useful pocketbook guide for clinical rotations, this book teaches you the “philosophy” behind emergency medical decision-making.
Tintinalli’s Emergency Medicine: A Comprehensive Study Guide
The essential (and possible most comprehensive) book on EM you’re ever likely to need. Suitable for students, residents, nurses, EMT’s, paramedics, and anyone else working in the specialty. Covers everything from prehospital care to trauma response.
Podcast
EM Basic
With over 40 individual podcast episodes dedicated to all aspects of EM, this is a hugely invaluable resource for anyone who wants to brush up on the subject away from the books. All episodes come with show notes.
Video
Lecturio
Lecturio has a really solid Emergency Medicine lecture series that has a 19 hour total run time is and made up of 200 individual videos. Running through these, coupled with the 574 quiz questions and 91 articles, is one of the best ways to completely cover the subject.
Check out our Lecturio review here to learn more.
Where To Find More Anki Emergency Medicine Decks
We highly recommend going to AnkiWeb.net and r/medicalschoolanki and looking at the emergency med offerings.
You can filter your results to see the most recent and most relevant pre-made Anki decks via search.
Why Use An Anki Emergency Medicine Pre-Made Deck?
- Excellent free resource
- Saves time making your own cards while covering the most high yield principles
- Gives you more time to do practice questions!
Top Tips For Using Anki Emergency Medicine Flashcard Decks
There can be lots of information on some cards which can be overwhelming. Our top tip is to keep it SIMPLE and make sure you are actively practicing cards on a regular basis.
Keep reviewing the cards where possible, i.e. once you have finished your set for the day, briefly make a mental note or write down where your study session ended.
If you’re studying from a large multi-subject pre-made Anki deck, make sure you use tags and suspend (ctrl + J) all other cards outside of the usual EM topics.
The same goes for making sure you only cover the topics you’ve already studied in your primary learning resource!
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Hey guys, I’m Sumran. I’m a British 5th-year international medical student at the Medical University of Varna, Bulgaria. I transitioned straight from completing my A-Levels into university. Currently, I have interests in Psychiatry and Gastroenterology. Outside of medicine, I enjoy reading crime novels and visiting art exhibitions.