Department Blog - September 2025

Professor and Vice Chair Dr. Amal Mattu, MD, was recently selected as a 2025 Pass and Susel Fellow of the Academy of Educational Excellence. University of Maryland alumni, Dr. Carolyn Pass and Dr. Richard Susel, established the Academy and designed it to recognize faculty members who demonstrate excellence in bedside, classroom, and innovative education. 

The Selection Committee felt that Dr. Mattu embodies the highest ideals of the medical profession and displayed an uncommon commitment to students' education—a sentiment widely shared by the entire Emergency Medicine department.

Emergency Medicine faculty are no strangers to this award. In 2017, Professor and Associate Dean Joseph Martinez, MD, was also recognized with this honor.

Congratulations, Dr. Mattu!

In its September issue, Air Medical Journal published an original research article titled “Stroke Management in Critical Care Transport Medicine: A Consensus Statement.” Associate Professor Dr. Benjamin Lawner, DO, MS, EMT-P, conceptualized the study and served as senior author for the publication. 

The article explores survey results from 36 active respondents from the Air Medical Physician Symposium (AMPS) Lite, held November 4, 2024 in Salt Lake City, Utah. It highlights the multidisciplinary nature of critical care transport medicine (CCTM) as well as the need for ongoing collaboration between CCTM, stroke centers, and emergency medical services agencies to ensure the best possible outcomes for stroke patients.

In July, Associate Professor Dr. Dan Gingold, MD, MPH, was one of three physicians quoted in “5 Appendicitis Symptoms Doctors Say You Should Never Ignore,” an online article published by Prevention.

Dr. Gingold and his colleagues quoted in the article cautioned readers of warning signs for appendicitis—including symptoms people may not commonly connect with appendix issues, like pain when walking and coughing, gastrointestinal discomfort, frequent urination, and brain fog.

With more than 10 million monthly users, Prevention’s online audience allows Dr. Gingold to impact public health in Baltimore and beyond.

Professor and Interim Department Chair Dr. Mike Winters, MBA, MD, along with Emergency Medicine (EM) specialists in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Philadelphia, recently released the newest episode of the Critical Care Perspectives in EM podcast.  

The episode explores the peer-reviewed study, “Conservative Oxygen Therapy in Mechanically Ventilated Critically Ill Adult Patients: The UK-ROX Randomized Clinical Trial,” which included more than 16,500 patients from 97 hospitals in the United Kingdom. The study was published in August by the Journal of the American Medical Association. 

In their discussion, Dr. Winters and colleagues review the study, discuss its results, and consider whether a change in EM practice is warranted.