Department Blog - April 2019

Zachary Dezman, MD, MS, MS, has been awarded a Science to Systems Grant from the Center for Addition Research, Education, and Service (CARES) at UMB’s School of Social Work. The funding will be used to analyze data from the fentanyl-detection test that was recently added to the hospital’s drug panel. Dr. Dezman and his collaborators will examine the effect of illicit fentanyl use on the administration of buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid use disorder in emergency department patients.

Stephen Thom, MD, PhD, Veena Bhopale, MPhil, PhD, and Ming Yang, MD, MS, published the article titled “Microparticle-Induced Vascular Injury in Mice Following Decompression is Inhibited by Hyperbaric Oxygen: Effects on Microparticles and Interleukin-1?” in the April issue of Journal of Applied Physiology.

Amal Mattu, MD, is a co-author of the ECG of the Month in the April issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine (2019;73[4]:409-412). It portrays concordant ST-segment depression in one lead, indicative of acute coronary occlusion in a patient with left bundle branch block. Dr. Mattu’s co-authors are Brian Lin, MD, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, William Brady, MD, University of Virginia School of Medicine, and Jeffrey Tabas, MD, University of California San Francisco.

A multidisciplinary research group led by Quincy K. Tran, MD, PhD, won the Silver Snapshot Abstract Award at the 2019 Annual Congress of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, held in San Diego in February. Their winning abstract was titled “Resuscitation Unit Transferred More While Providing Similar Outcomes for Patients with Stroke from Large Vessel Occlusion.” Dr. Tran’s collaborators in this project are Karen L. Yarbrough, DNP, CRNP, and Michael Phipps, MD, Department of Neurology; Wan-Tsu W. Chang, MD, Department of Emergency Medicine; Jay Menaker, MD, Department of Surgery; and Paul Capobianco, Amir Medic, Asim Shafique, Isabella Swafford, and Timothy Traynor, who were students at the University of Maryland, College Park, at the time of the study.

Roger Stone, MD, MS, was a co-presenter of “Alternative Transport Destinations for Your Lowest Acuity Patients” at EMS Today 2019, held at National Harbor in February. His collaborator was Alan Butsch, MA, NRP, Battalion Chief of the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, for which Dr. Stone serves as medical director. EMS Today is an annual educational conference sponsored by JEMS. Its lectures, exhibits, and equipment demonstrations attract more than 4600 emergency medical services personnel from around the world. The presentation by Dr. Stone and Chief Butsch was one of three from EMS Today 2019 to be covered by EMS1.com, an online information resource for prehospital care personnel.

Laura J. Bontempo, MD, MEd, and Nubia Seyoum, MD, published the case report titled “Dyspnea in a Patient with Melanoma” in the January 2019 issue of Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine.