Department Blog - June 2017

Joshua McClain, MD, and Zachary D.W. Dezman, MD, published a case report, “Japanese Immigrant with Abdominal Pain,” in the June issue of the Journal of Emergency Medicine (53[6]:e249-50). The patient's pain was presumably caused by a reflux condition, but radiographic evaluation incidentally revealed dozens of needle fragments in her subcutaneous tissues, left intentionally by a practitioner of Hari acupuncture.

Roger Stone, MD, MS, was an invited speaker for Maryland EMSCare 2017, the annual educational conference sponsored by Maryland’s Regional EMS Advisory Councils and the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems. The event was held in Ocean City in late April. Dr. Stone co-presented the lecture titled “What About ‘Reverse Specialty Centers’?: Alternative Transport Destinations That Can Receive Some of Our Lower Acuity EMS Patients.” He also was an instructor for a 2-hour airway management module for paramedics, which included a surgical airway lab and hands-on training in video laryngoscopy.

Maite Huis in ‘t Veld, MD, Zachary Dezman, MD, and Amal Mattu, MD, in collaboration with colleagues from Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Wake Forest School of Medicine, and Medisch Centrum Haaglanden in The Hague, published “The Fast and Furious: Low-Risk Chest Pain and the Rapid Rule-Out Protocol” in the April issue of Western Journal of Emergency Medicine (18[3]:474-478).

Daniel Gingold, MD, MPH, is the lead author of the article titled “Impact of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion on Emergency Department High Utilizers with Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions: A Cross-Sectional Study,” which was published in the May issue of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. To design and conduct the study, he collaborated with Rachelle Pierre-Mathieu, MD, MPP, Medical Director, Office of Health Care Quality, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Brandon Cole, MD, MPH, Clinical Director, Emergency Department, Prince George’s Hospital Center, Andrew Miller, MD, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, West Virginia University School of Medicine, and Joneigh Khaldun, MD, MPH, the former Medical Director, Baltimore Health Department, and now Medical Director, Detroit Health Department. They found that, after implemenation of the ACA, the proportion of ED users who were high utilizers decreased while the number of visits by high utilizers for ambulatory care sensitive conditions remained stable.