In neurocritical care, the initial evaluation is often fast paced, and assessment and management go hand in hand. History, clinical examination, and workup should be obtained while considering therapeutic implications and the need for lifesaving interventions. In this episode, Aaron Berkowitz, MD, PhD FAAN, speaks with Sarah Wahlster, MD, an author of the article “The Neurocritical Care Examination and Workup,” in the Continuum June 2024 Neurocritical Care issue. Dr. Berkowitz is a Continuum® Audio interviewer and professor of neurology at the University of California San Francisco, Department of Neurology and a neurohospitalist, general neurologist, and a clinician educator at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco, California. Dr. Wahlster is an associate professor of neurology in the departments of neurology, neurological surgery, and anesthesiology and pain medicine at Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Additional Resources Read the article: The Neurocritical Care Examination and Workup Subscribe to Continuum: shop.lww.com/Continuum Earn CME (available only to AAN members): continpub.com/AudioCME Continuum® Aloud (verbatim audio-book style recordings of articles available only to Continuum® subscribers): continpub.com/Aloud More about the American Academy of Neurology: aan.com Social Media facebook.com/continuumcme @ContinuumAAN Host: @AaronLBerkowitz Guest: @SWahlster Full Episode Transcript Sarah Wahlster, MD   Dr Jones: This is Dr Lyell Jones, Editor-in-Chief of Continuum, the premier topic-based neurology clinical review and CME journal from the American Academy of Neurology. Thank you for joining us on Continuum Audio, a companion podcast to the journal. Continuum Audio features conversations with the guest editors and authors of Continuum, who are the leading experts in their fields. Subscribers to the Continuum journal can read the full article or listen to verbatim recordings of the article by clicking on the link in the Show Notes. Subscribers also have access to exclusive audio content not featured on the podcast. As an ad-free journal entirely supported by subscriptions, if you're not already a subscriber, we encourage you to become one. For more information on subscribing, please visit the link in the Show Notes. AAN members: stay tuned after the episode to hear how you can get CME for listening.  Dr Berkowitz: This is Dr Aaron Berkowitz, and today I'm interviewing Dr Sarah Wahlster about her article on examination and workup of the neurocritical care patient, which is part of the June 2024 Continuum issue on neurocritical care. Welcome to the podcast, Dr Wahlster. Can you please introduce yourself to the audience? Dr Wahlster: Thank you very much, Aaron. I'm Sarah Wahlster. I'm a neurologist and neurontensivist at Harborview Medical Center at the University of Washington. Dr Berkowitz: Well, Sarah and I know each other for many, many years. Sarah was my senior resident at Mass General and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Actually, Sarah was at my interview dinner for that program, and I remember meeting her and thinking, “If such brilliant, kind, talented people are in this program, I should try to see if I can find my way here so I can learn from them.” So, I learned a lot from Sarah as a resident, I learned a lot from this article, and excited for all of us to learn from Sarah, today, talking about this important topic. So, to start off, let's take a common scenario that we see often. We're called to the emergency room because a patient is found down, unresponsive, and neurology is called to see the patient. So, what's running through your mind? And then, walk us through your approach as you're getting to the bedside and as you're at the bedside. Dr Wahlster: Yeah, absolutely. This was a fun topic to write about because I think this initial kind of mystery of a patient