About Us

Who We Are

Brandon Oto, PA-C, FCCM and Bryan Boling, DNP, ACNP, FCCM are your lead Academy instructors.

Brandon is a PA practicing primarily in a medical ICU. He completed a generalist critical care residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and has since worked in multiple critical care environments across the Eastern US, treating a spectrum of medical, surgical, cardiac, trauma, and neurocritical care populations. Besides education, he is interested in resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, ICU liberation, diagnostic reasoning, vascular access, and point-of-care ultrasound. He blogs at Critical Concepts and Tweets as @critconcepts.

Bryan Boling, DNP, AGACNP-BC, FCCM

Bryan is a nurse practitioner practicing primarily in surgical and neurologic critical care. He has particular interests in shock, resuscitation, point of care ultrasound, and advanced airway management. He blogs at Critical Care Notes and Tweets as @CritCareNotes.

Since 2019, Brandon and Bryan have co-hosted Critical Care Scenarios, a freely available educational podcast featuring critical care content on a variety of topics, which has reached an audience of hundreds of thousands.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Foundations is a comprehensive didactic curriculum covering >50 topics and targeted at new APPs (physician assistants and nurse practitioners) starting out in the ICU. Many centers aren’t equipped to offer new hires any training beyond basic clinical immersion (“go forth and figure it out”); Foundations is the missing link. By teaching conceptual frameworks and practical approaches to the core concepts underpinning critical care, it’s meant to supplement on-the-job training.

    It's intended for a generalist audience and should be applicable for clinicians in every ICU, regardless of specialty or size. In terms of level, it's written for a person who has completed an NP or PA training program, but has little or no experience in critical care, or even in inpatient medicine. However, we think it would also be valuable for bedside ICU nurses, students, or allied health professionals looking for some clinical training and perspectives, and could serve as a broad review of practical ICU care for more advanced clinicians as well.

    Foundations is divided into four sections, Foundations: Concepts (general principles of ICU care, workflow, and therapeutics), Foundations: Pathology (specific diseases and their diagnosis and treatment), Foundations: Procedures (bedside procedures), and Foundations: POCUS (ultrasound).

  • Yes! We address foundational critical care content, specialized topics for those in the MICU, SICU, cardiac ICU, and elsewhere, and all the way up through master-level concepts.

    We aim for content that's useful for learners from a range of backgrounds, with a couple caveats:

    Our content is written for an audience practicing in the United States. While much of it will apply elsewhere, some care may differ geographically.

    We focus on an adult population and do not address differences in pediatric care.

    Clinicians treating pediatrics or practicing outside the US can still make use of the Academy, but will need to make the necessary adjustments for their environment.

  • Yep, the full Foundations program is accredited! Check out the CME page for more details.

  • Sure. Overview of Vascular Access: Needle Tracking is visible to the public as a preview of the Foundations program, and several videos within the MICU, Procedures, and POCUS courses are accessible on their respective course pages. If you feel the need for a more comprehensive preview, shoot us an email and we’ll see about setting up a short trial.

  • Sure! Bulk discounts are available for any group of 5 or more users that enrolls together and maintains their subscriptions. Email us to inquire.

  • Yes, the website is optimized for either desktop or mobile use. The podcasts can be accessed using any podcast-catcher app (Apple Podcast, Overcast, etc).

  • Shortly after subscribing, you’ll receive three emails from Castos, our podcast provider. This will include instructions for adding each feed to your podcast app. This login is unique to you, will not work for anyone else, and will stop working if your membership ends. You will receive three Castos emails, one for each feed (Pearls, Reviews, and Videocast).

  • Reviews: Audio-only versions of the lessons, meant for easy review on the go.

    Pearls: Short, stand-alone lessons on brief clinical points or general musings.

    Videocast: Some users prefer to watch the lessons on their mobile devices using a podcast app rather than on the website. The videocast is simply each video lesson in its entirety (not broken up into chapters); it differs from the Reviews feed, which is audio-only.

    Note that not all podcast apps support video; you’ll need to check on yours. (The native Apple Podcast app is the most common one that does.) As of now, all new lessons will appear in the videocast feed, but not all of the older archives have been added yet.

  • If you feel you’re not getting the value you had in mind (sniff… sorry), shoot us an email and we’ll chat.

  • Until you graduate from that role (student, resident, etc). When your status changes, update your subscription to match the role that fits your fancy new title. Give us a buzz if you have any trouble.

    I'm not in the US and not sure which subscription type suits my role.