Department Blog - February 2015

Debra Lee, MD, and Ben Lawner, DO, MS, EMT-P, are co-authors of the chapter titled “Medical Oversight of EMS Systems,” which has been published in Emergency Medical Services: Clinical Practice and Oversight, the new textbook for the National EMS Medical Directors Course and Practicum sponsored by the National Association of EMS Physicians. The publisher is John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Also contributing to this chapter were Robert Bass, MD, recently retired from the executive director position at MIEMSS, and J.V. Nable, MD, EMT-P, now an emergency medicine and EMS attending at Georgetown University Hospital.

Dr. Amal Mattu gave the keynote address ("Ten Things You Must Consider in the Crashing Patient: Beyond A-B-C and ACLS") at the first annual Saudi Emergency Medicine Assembly, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 10. In addition, he led two ECG workshops and presented lectures titled "ACS Update 2015" and "Acute Heart Failure."

Ben Lawner, DO, MS, EMT-P, is a co-author of the article titled “The Price of a Helping Hand: Modeling the Outcomes and Costs of Bystander CPR,” which has been published online by Prehospital Emergency Care. Based on a review of EMS quality assurance data, the authors documented the effectiveness of a community CPR training program, noting that an appreciable proportion of people who received bystander CPR had a shockable rhythm on their initial ECG. The lead author for this article is Andrew Bouland, BS, a third-year student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The other contributors include Kevin Seaman, MD, the new Executive Director of MIEMSS, and Nicholas Risko, MD, the first student to complete the EMS elective at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who is now an intern at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Steven J. White, MD, MS, an attending physician in the ED at University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Easton, has published a letter titled "Auscultation Without Contamination: A Solution for Stethoscope Use With Personal Protective Equipment," in Annals of Emergency Medicine. He describes a configuration consisting of a digital stethoscope connected to a Bluetooth transmitter, which sends signals to bone-conduction headphones. This arrangement, tested by the author, enables physicians to auscultate heart and lung sounds, even from a distance, while leaving them free from the conversation impediments posed by earbuds. The setup can be helpful when a physician needs to don PPE to treat a patient with a transmittable infection and when an anxious patient or autistic child would find comfort in having a little distance from the examining physician. Dr. White's letter is available at this address:

www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644(14)01562-5/abstract

Amal Mattu, MD, was the keynote speaker at the 8th Annual Risk Management Summit sponsored by Emergent Medicine Associates in Los Angeles. During the conference, held in early February, Dr. Mattu presented lectures titled "Winning at Failure! Modern Management of Cardiogenic Pulmonary Edema," "Pitfalls in the Diagnosis of Acute Coronary Syndromes: Low Risk Chest Pain," "Pericariditis vs. STEMI: ECG Pearls," and "Wide Complex Tachydysrhythmias: Myths and Pitfalls."

R. Gentry Wilkerson, MD, participated in the evaluation of a simulation training program designed to enhance interprofessional education and collaboration among nursing and pharmacy students. The program and the results of its assessment are described by Dr. Wilkerson and his colleages in the Schools of Nursing and Pharmacy in the November issue of Nurse Education in Practice.

Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, is a co-author of the article tltled "Hospital Discharge Instructions: Comprehension and Compliance Among Older Adults," which was published in the November 2014 issue of The Journal of General Internal Medicine. By contacting a study group of 650 people aged 65 or older after discharge from the University of Maryland Medical Center, the authors documented noncomprehension rates of 5% for follow-up appointments, 27% regarding medications, 48% for exercise, and 50% for diet. In this mulitidisciplinary study, Dr. Hirshon collaborated with investigators from the Department of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research in the UM School of Pharmacy and from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and the Department of Psychiatry in the UM School of Medicine.