Clinical Updates: December 2025

Your monthly clinical update from James Oswald (Clinical Practice Guideline Specialist) and A/Prof Ben Meadley (Director of Paramedicine).

• Hear from Louise Reynolds (Victoria’s Chief Paramedic Officer) on the women’s pain inquiry findings—and what it means for paramedic practice.
• Spotlight the VVED back pain pathway: for many patients, opioids + ED isn’t the answer—community physio support can be surprisingly effective.
• Adam Ho (AV Senior Pharmacist) answers the most common medication questions.
• Paper of the Month: a must-read on post-intubation hypotension.
• Ben runs through key professional development opportunities for 2025 and what’s coming in 2026.
• Equipment update.
• And we wrap with small steps to transform your practice

Further resources

VVED Back pain pathway presentation (AV employees only): https://engage.cloud.microsoft/main/threads/eyJfdHlwZSI6IlRocmVhZCIsImlkIjoiMzU5OTQ5NzU4NzMzNTE2OCJ9?trk_copy_link=V1

AI Professional Development Courses

Free micro-skill course in AI: https://www.australianindustrygroup.com.au/education-training/centre-for-education-and-training/blog/free-introduction-to-artificial-intelligence-microskill-course

Digital health 101: https://digitalhealthworkforce.org.au/education-and-resources/

Australian Institute of Digital Health AI essentials: https://cpd.digitalhealth.org.au/course/ai-essentials

AI Podcasts

NEJM AI Grand rounds (AI Podcast): https://store.nejm.org/signup/ai/podcasts

Beyond the prompt (AI podcast): https://www.beyondtheprompt.ai/

Paper of the month

Prehospital Postintubation Hypotension and Survival in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2841682

Ketamine or Etomidate for Tracheal Intubation of Critically Ill Adults: https://www.nejm.org/doi/abs/10.1056/NEJMoa2511420

Get in touch

clinicalguidelines@ambulance.vic.gov.au

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James: ⁠⁠⁠@JamesOz1⁠⁠ 

Ben: ⁠@ben_meadley⁠

Linkedin

James

Ben

Producer: Liam Hennebry