Department Blog

Ken Butler, DO, has been named the 2015 recipient of the Janice A. Wachtler Educator of the Year Award from the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians (ACOEP). The award recognizes Dr. Butler’s education of residents at the University of Maryland, his contribution to the educational literature, his dedication to medical education on a worldwide basis, and his support of continuing medical education within ACOEP and other emergency medicine associations. The award will be presented during ACOEP’s Scientific Assembly, to be held in Orlando in October.

Ming Yang, MS, Veena Bhopale, PhD, and Stephen Thom, MD, PhD, recently published two articles in the Journal of Applied Physiology. The July issue contains their article titled “Ascorbic Acid Abrogates Microparticle Generation and Vascular Injuries Associated with High-Pressure Exposure.” Their article in the August issue is titled “Separating the Roles of Nitrogen and Oxygen in High Pressure-Induced Blood-Borne Microparticle Elevations, Neutrophil Activation, and Vascular Injury in Mice.”

Christina Tupe, MD, is a co-author of the article titled “In-Flight Medical Emergencies during Commercial Travel,” published in the September 3 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The lead author is J.V. Nable, MD, NRP, a 2012 graduate of our EM residency and former clinical instructor on our faculty (now at Georgetown University). The article discusses the resources available to physicians who are asked to provide medical care to airline passengers, the associated legal responsibilities and ramifications, and suggested responses to specific medical conditions. It is available at www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1409213.

Amal Mattu, MD, was the keynote speaker for the U.S. Army Emergency Medicine Leadership Conference held in Tacoma, Washington, on August 31. The title of his address was "Everyday Leadership: Secrets of Great Minds Through the Ages." He also presented a lecture on "Acute Coronary Syndromes in the Elderly Patient."

Semhar Tewelde, MD, and Joshua Reynolds, MD, MS, guest edited the August issue of Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America. The topic is cardiovascular emergencies. Most of the articles in this issue were written by current and former EM faculty members and residents:

• “Cardiovascular Catastrophes in the Obstetric Population” by Sarah Dubbs, MD, and Dr. Tewelde
• “The Critically Ill Infant with Congenital Heart Disease” by Ashley Strobel, MD, and Mimi Lu, MD, MS
• “Blunt Cardiac Injury,” co-authored by Evie Marcolini, MD
• “Chameleons: Electrocardiogram Imitators of ST-Segment Elevation MI” by J.V. Nable, MD, NRP, and Ben Lawner, DO, MS, EMT-P
• “Hypertensive Emergencies in the Emergency Department” by Yemi Adebayo, MD, and Rob Rogers, MD
• “Congestive Heart Failure” by Michael Scott, MD, and Mike Winters, MD
• “Atrial Fibrillation,” co-authored by Laura Bontempo, MD
• “Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection-Related Heart Disease” by Thuy Van Pham, MD, and Mercedes Torres, MD
• “Management of Crashing Patients with Pulmonary Hypertension” by John Greenwood, MD, and Ryan Spangler, MD
• “Cardiogenic Shock,” “Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation,” and “Postcardiac Arrest Management,”co-authored by Josh Moskovitz, MD, MPH, MBA
• “Emergency Care of Patients with Pacemakers and Defibrillators” by Michael Allison, MD, and Haney Mallemat, MD

Our department was a hosting institution for the 8th Mediterranean Emergency Medicine Congress, held in Rome in early September. Eight of our faculty members traveled to Italy to participate in this international event. Terry Mulligan, DO, MPH, served on the Executive Committee of the conference. Amal Mattu, MD, was a keynote speaker, presenting his lecture titled “Becoming the Leader Others Follow.” Also traveling to Italy as invited speakers were Brian Browne, MD, Ken Butler, DO, Semhar Tewelde, MD, Larry Weiss, MD, JD, George Willis, and Mike Winters, MD. Collectively, they led two pre-courses, presented more than 30 lectures, and moderated several panels. The conference drew more than 950 participants from 61 countries, with 105 speakers from around the world.

Mike McCurdy, MD, and Emilie Calvello, MD, along with their colleague Alfred Papali, MD, from the Division of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine, published the article titled “A ‘Three Delays’ Model for Severe Sepsis in Resource-Limited Countries” in the August issue of the Journal of Critical Care. Drawing from the three-delays model used by global health organizations to create policies and programs for the reduction of perinatal mortality, the authors propose a similar framework designed to confront the alarming mortality rates associated with severe sepsis and septic shock in developing countries.

Douglas Floccare, MD, MPH, and Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, PhD, MPH, are co-authors of the article titled “Ground and Helicopter Emergency Medical Services Time Tradeoffs Assessed with Geographic Information,” published in the July issue of Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance. Their study demonstrated the efficacy of geographic information systems in comparing helicopter and ground transport times and thereby identifying which mode of transportation would be advantageous to patients both in advance (as regional maps) and in real-time decision making.

Quincy Tran, MD, PhD, has received a scholarship from the Emergency Medicine Foundation to attend the Emergency Medicine Basic Research Skills Workshop. The 11-day course will be held in Dallas in November and April. Congratulations to Dr. Tran for succeeding in the highly competitve application process for this award!

The trauma care training program for physicians in Egypt, which was designed 10 years ago by Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, and colleagues in Shock Trauma and at Ain Shams University in Cairo, is the focus of an article in the July-August issue of the Journal of Surgical Education. To date, 639 physicians from multiple specialties have taken the 4-day course, which has been adopted by the Egyptian Emergency Medicine Board and is required training at several Egyptian medical schools.