The four topics
Pick the patient in front of you rather than the chapter you were assigned. If you are not sure which one applies, the cross-topic sections at the end of each report are built for exactly that moment.
Sepsis & Septic Shock
Life-threatening organ dysfunction from a dysregulated host response to infection. The definition changed in 2016 and the treatment targets have moved twice since — this report keeps the course teaching and the current guideline side by side.
Heart Failure (CHF)
A clinical syndrome, not a single disease. Everything hangs on the ejection fraction, then on whether the patient is wet or dry and warm or cold — that pair of questions picks the drug.
Pneumonia — CAP, HAP & VAP
An acute febrile inflammatory disorder of the lung. Two questions drive every decision: where did the patient get it, and what am I worried about. The third is whether they can safely go home.
Urinary Tract Infection & Urosepsis
The most common bacterial infection in the elderly and the most common source of sepsis in that same population. Three questions decide everything: normal or defective tract, above or below the bladder, and is the patient systemically ill.
Each one is a single offline page in the same style as your weekly reading reports: a sticky section bar that tracks where you are, tables you can scan instead of read, click-to-reveal self-check questions with a rationale for every wrong option, and decision algorithms drawn as steps and branches. The sources panel at the bottom of every topic cites the course chapter and the governing guideline — and where those two disagree, it shows both and tells you which is which, so you can answer an exam the way your course wants without being wrong at the bedside.
These are study aids built from course readings and published guidelines, not standing order sets. Doses are the ones those sources print — but your patient's renal function, weight, allergies, pregnancy status, and your institution's antibiogram and formulary decide what is actually given. Confirm every drug against your facility's policy and a current reference, and escalate to your preceptor rather than extrapolating from a study page.
Two topics where the guidance moved
Sourcing these four topics turned up a real finding: on two of them, the course textbook is teaching guidance that has since been superseded. Both reports reconcile this rather than quietly overwrite it.
Sepsis — your textbook is teaching a 2018 bundle
The Hour-1 Bundle is a 2018 document. Neither SSC 2021 nor the current SSC 2026 guideline re-endorsed it as a bundle — both replaced it with severity-stratified antibiotic timing. Antibiotics within 1 hour is a strong recommendation for septic shock, but it is 3 hours for possible sepsis without shock.
Also corrected in the report: the “7–10 day” duration is SSC 2016 language and appears in neither 2021 nor 2026; qSOFA has only 23.1% sensitivity and guidelines now prefer NEWS/NEWS2/MEWS/SIRS; vasopressin is a fixed 0.03 units/min; and 2026 reverses 2021 on empiric antifungals and on albumin.
Pneumonia — ATS and IDSA no longer agree
A July 2025 ATS focused update shortens non-severe CAP to under 5 days once the patient is stable, and conditionally supports corticosteroids in severe CAP except influenza-associated pneumonia. IDSA declined to co-endorse it — the first major CAP split in more than two decades.
The report also corrects reflexive vanc/zosyn in CAP, routine anaerobic coverage for aspiration, and vancomycin dosing, which is now AUC-guided rather than trough-guided. Your vaccine section is outdated twice over: ACIP lowered routine pneumococcal vaccination to age 50 in October 2024.
Every source, with links
All the guidelines and primary sources behind these four reports, in one place. Each report also repeats the ones relevant to it at the foot of the page.
Sepsis
Heart failure
Pneumonia
Urinary tract infection
Shared reference pages
These are study aids built from course readings and published guidelines, not standing order sets. Doses are the ones those sources print — but your patient's renal function, weight, allergies, pregnancy status, and your institution's antibiogram and formulary decide what is actually given. Confirm every drug against your facility's policy and a current reference, and escalate to your preceptor rather than extrapolating from a study page.