On September 22 and 23, a team from the Department of Emergency Medicine competed in Runragnar (www.runragnar.com), a running event that started in Cumberland, Maryland, and finished in Washington, DC. Each participant ran a leg of the journey, ranging from 11 to 26 miles, while the other team members, driving in two vans, monitored the progress of the runner and prepared for their time on the course. The EM UMDSOM team consisted of faculty members Mike Abraham, Mike Winters, Joe Martinez, Gentry Wilkerson, Wade Gaasch, and Dan Haase; residents Jon Strong, Carmen Avendano, and Megan Kirk; residency graduate Michael Allison; ICU nurse Jennie Orloff; and Ted Murphy, a “friend of the family.” They completed the 200-mile course in 29 hours, finishing 14th of more than 300 teams.
Kristin Cioffi, BA, Human Resources Manager in the administrative office of the Department of Emergency Medicine, recently passed the certification examination of the Society for Human Resource Management. The 4-hour exam includes 95 knowledge-based questions, 65 situational judgement items, and 30 field-test items on the topics of leadership, ethics, communication, cultural effectiveness, business acumen, employee relations, and diversity.
Amal Mattu, MD, co-authored the article titled “The Differential Diagnosis of Wide QRS Complex Tachycardia,” published in the October issue of The American Journal of Emergency Medicine (35[10]:1525-9). He collaborated on this work with William Brady, MD, and John Ferguson, MD, from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Jeffrey Tabas, MD, from San Francisco School of Medicine.
A commentary by Amal Mattu, MD, was published in the Emergency Medicine Viewpoints column of Medscape on September 15 (www.medscape.com/viewarticle/885676). Titled “Painless Aortic Dissection in the Emergency Department,” it summarizes the article by Kit Ling Fan and Ling Pong Leung, from the University of Hong Kong, in the April issue of The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Based on the conclusions of that source article, “Clinical Profile of Patients of Acute Aortic Dissection Presenting to the ED Without Chest Pain,” Dr. Mattu advises that, for most medical conditions, including AAD, “classic” presentations exist only in textbooks and on board exams.
Semhar Tewelde, MD, and Amal Mattu, MD, with William Brady, MD, from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, published “Pitfalls in Electrocardiographic Diagnosis of Acute Coronary Syndrome in Low-Risk Chest Pain” in the June issue of the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine (2017;18[4]:601-606).
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.