Department Blog

R. Gentry Wilkerson, MD, is a guest editor of this month's issue of Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America, on the topic of observation medicine. He co-authored the preface with his colleague Christopher Baugh, MD, MBA, from Harvard Medical School and the article titled “Care of Acute Gastrointestinal Conditions in the Observation Unit” (35[3]:571-587]).

Zachary D.W. Dezman, MD, and Amal Mattu, MD, with Richard Body, MB ChB, PhD, Manchester Royal Infirmary, UK, published the article titled “Utility of the History and Physical Examination in the Detection of Acute Coronary Syndromes in Emergency Department Patients,” in the June issue of the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine (18[4]:752-760). Through a literature review, they evaluated whether atypical symptoms and "classic" symptoms can be used to reliably rule in or rule out the diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome and whether further testing is necessary at all.

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.

Alexis Salerno, MD, Brad Cotter, MD (now at Brown University), and Michael Winters, MD, published “The Use of Tissue Plasminogen Activator in the Treatment of Wallenberg Syndrome Caused by Vertebral Artery Dissection” in the May issue of the Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Ken Butler, DO, presented the Grand Rounds lecture for the emergency medicine residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston on May 10. The title of his talk was “Ketamine Sequence Intubation.”

Laura Pimentel, MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Chief Medical Officer, University of Maryland Emergency Network, Fermin Barrueto, MD, Senior Vice President/Chief Medical Officer, University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health, and Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, Professor of Emergency Medicine, with colleagues from the schools of business at City University of New York, the University of Maryland College Park, and American University, published the article titled “Impact of Health Policy Changes on Emergency Medicine in Maryland Stratified by Socioeconomic Status” in the April issue of the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. Their analysis found that implementation of the Affordable Care Act and of a global budget revenue structure for hospital reimbursement on January 1, 2014, changed emergency medicine practice and finance: admission and observation rates were lowered, fewer patients were uninsured, and professional revenue increased.

Amal Mattu, MD, was a featured speaker at the 3rd Dutch Emergency Cardiology Congress, held this week at the Albert Schweitzer Medical Center in Dordrecht, Netherlands. He presented the following lectures: ACS Mimics on ECG, WPW Finally Made Simple, STEMI without the STE on ECG, Touch Cases in Cardiac Ischemia, Bradycardia and AV Block, Emergency Cardiology Literature Update, Cardiac Arrest 2017, and PEA: A Simplified Approach.