Demystifying critical care: a new series provides a succinct, modern approach aimed at primary care physicians.

Since their inception, intensive care units (ICUs) have continually grown in scope and complexity. Today's ICU—and the whole field of critical care medicine—can seem daunting to some physicians. With this in mind, wjm begins a new series that aims to demystify the workings of the 21st century ICU and to provide a succinct, modern approach to critical care medicine for primary care practitioners.