Department Blog

Jennifer Guyther, MD, and Ben Lawner, DO, MS, EMT-P, served on the faculty for the 22nd Annual Conference of the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation, presented in Baltimore in late February. Dr. Guyther's talk was titled “Sticks, Stones and Broken Bones: Pediatric Injuries.” Dr. Lawner gave three lectures: "EMS Darwin Awards: Strategies for Survival and Evolution,” “Resuscitation Review 2014: Articles You've Got to Know," and "How Low Do We Go to Stop the Flow? Prehospital Trauma Resuscitation." Dr. Guyther is a Fire Surgeon in the Baltimore County Fire Department, and Dr. Lawner is the Deputy EMS Medical Director in the Balitmore City Fire Department.

Two of our faculty members recently received prestigious awards from the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM). Larry Weiss, MD, JD, was named a Master of the AAEM, an award that has been presented only 7 times during the organization’s history. This top-tier honor recognizes senior AAEM fellows who have made extraordinary contributions to the association and to the specialty through service, published works, education, and leadership. Mimi Lu, MD, MS, received AAEM’s Young Educator Award, which honors a physician for outstanding contributions to AAEM through its educational programs. The awards were presented during AAEM’s 2015 Scientific Assembly, held in Austin in early March. Congratulations to Dr. Weiss and Dr. Lu!

The faculty for the 21st Annual Scientific Assembly of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, held in Austin in early March, included more physicians from our department than from any other institution. Eighteen members of our department presented lectures and posters, led a pre-conference workshop, received national awards, gave plenary session addresses, and were named to leadership positions within the organization. The following faculty members contributed to this impressive participation: Michael Bond, MD, Laura Bontempo, MD, Rose Chasm, MD, Bryan Hayes, PharmD, Mimi Lu, MD, MS, Haney Mallemat, MD, Joe Martinez, MD, Amal Mattu, MD, Siamak Moayedi, MD, Terry Mulligan, DO, MPH, Kinjal Sethuraman, MD, MPH, Roger Stone, MD, MS, Semhar Tewelde, MD, Larry Weiss, MD, JD, Gentry Wilkerson, MD, Mike Winters, MD, and Andy Windsor, MD, RDMS. In addition, Kathleen Stephanos, MD, a fourth-year EM/Peds resident, contributed a photo presentation to the program.

Ben Lawner, DO, MS, EMT-P, Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, and Debra Lee, MD, are co-authors of the article titled “Comparison of Prediction Models for Use of Medical Resources at Urban Auto-Racing Events,” published in the December 2014 issue of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. Their study was based on data from the Grand Prix events held in Baltimore in 2011 and 2012. The investigators found that prediction models commonly used in response readiness planning overpredict the medical resources that will be required by spectators and participants. The EM faculty members collaborated with colleagues from the Department of Anesthesiology, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, the National Study Center for Trauma and Emergency Medical Systems, and the Baltimore City Fire Department. The article’s lead author is J.V. Nable, MD, NRP, formerly on our faculty and now with Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Whitney Cesari, MD, a third-year EM resident, has been chosen by the medical school’s Class of 2015 for induction into the University of Maryland chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Each class can choose six residents for this honor, which acknowledges compassion, humanism, and dedication to patients and students. Congratulations to Dr. Cesari for this prestigious award!

Laura Pimentel, MD, is a co-author of the article titled “The Maryland Medicare Waiver and Emergency Care: Mixed Experiences Deserve Close Scrutiny,” published in the March issue of the American Journal of Medical Quality. Her co-authors are Jesse Pines, MD, MBA, MSCE, and Steven A. Farmer, MD, PhD, from the Office for Clinical Practice Innovation at George Washington University. Their article is available at this address: http://ajm.sagepub.com/content/30/2/186.long.

Debra Lee, MD, and Ben Lawner, DO, MS, EMT-P, are co-authors of the chapter titled “Medical Oversight of EMS Systems,” which has been published in Emergency Medical Services: Clinical Practice and Oversight, the new textbook for the National EMS Medical Directors Course and Practicum sponsored by the National Association of EMS Physicians. The publisher is John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Also contributing to this chapter were Robert Bass, MD, recently retired from the executive director position at MIEMSS, and J.V. Nable, MD, EMT-P, now an emergency medicine and EMS attending at Georgetown University Hospital.

Dr. Amal Mattu gave the keynote address ("Ten Things You Must Consider in the Crashing Patient: Beyond A-B-C and ACLS") at the first annual Saudi Emergency Medicine Assembly, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 10. In addition, he led two ECG workshops and presented lectures titled "ACS Update 2015" and "Acute Heart Failure."

Ben Lawner, DO, MS, EMT-P, is a co-author of the article titled “The Price of a Helping Hand: Modeling the Outcomes and Costs of Bystander CPR,” which has been published online by Prehospital Emergency Care. Based on a review of EMS quality assurance data, the authors documented the effectiveness of a community CPR training program, noting that an appreciable proportion of people who received bystander CPR had a shockable rhythm on their initial ECG. The lead author for this article is Andrew Bouland, BS, a third-year student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The other contributors include Kevin Seaman, MD, the new Executive Director of MIEMSS, and Nicholas Risko, MD, the first student to complete the EMS elective at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who is now an intern at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Steven J. White, MD, MS, an attending physician in the ED at University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Easton, has published a letter titled "Auscultation Without Contamination: A Solution for Stethoscope Use With Personal Protective Equipment," in Annals of Emergency Medicine. He describes a configuration consisting of a digital stethoscope connected to a Bluetooth transmitter, which sends signals to bone-conduction headphones. This arrangement, tested by the author, enables physicians to auscultate heart and lung sounds, even from a distance, while leaving them free from the conversation impediments posed by earbuds. The setup can be helpful when a physician needs to don PPE to treat a patient with a transmittable infection and when an anxious patient or autistic child would find comfort in having a little distance from the examining physician. Dr. White's letter is available at this address:

www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644(14)01562-5/abstract