Department Blog

Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, testified before a subcommittee of the House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce this morning, regarding the national shortage of inpatient psychatric beds and the implications of boarding psychiatric patients in EDs. Dr. Hirshon presented data from the recently published National Report Card on Emergency Care, produced by a task force that he chaired within the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Ali Farzad, MD, has published another interview in his column in Common Sense, the national membership publication of The American Academy of Emergency Medicine. In the current issue, he meets our very own Rob Rogers, MD, at the intersection of traditional academic emergency medicine and revolutionary approaches to teaching, represented by #FOAMed. Their entertaining and provocative exchange can be found here: goo.gl/tpKVjX. Dr. Farzad has published equally engaging interviews with Dr. Amal Mattu (May/June 2012) and Dr. Haney Mallemat (July/August 2013) in this cutting-edge column. The magazine is archived at www.aaem.org/publications/common-sense.

Congratulations to Drs. Sarah Dubbs, Semhar Tewelde, Andi Tenner, and Danya Khoujah for their recent completion of ACEP's Teaching Fellowship. Our emergency medicine program has more graduates of this teachng skills course than any other program in the world. Dr. Amal Mattu, also a graduate of the fellowship, has been a member of its faculty since 2007.

Whitney Cesari, MD, Brad Cotter, MD, and Ben Lawner, DO, presented the evening educational broadcast for EMS providers from the Shock Trauma Center auditorium on March 5. They discussed current treatment protocols and presented an evidence-based approach for common prehospital calls: traumatic brain injury, cardiac dysrhythmia, and respiratory failure. The panel discussion was streamed live, in an interactive format, to 70 prehospital care providers across the state.

Congratulations to Dr. Doug Sward on the publication of his article on wilderness medicine in the current issue of the World Journal of Emergency Medicine. The article provides an overview of the history, areas of practice, and educational opportunities in this specialty area of emergency medicine. Dr. Sward's co-author is Dr. Brad Bennett, from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Thier article is available at the journal's website, www.wjem.org.

Dr. Brian Browne was a keynote speaker at the International Summit on Emergency Medicine and Trauma, held in Pondicherry, India, in mid-February. In addition to his plenary session presentation, titled "Integrated Emergency Care," he led a break-out session on lethal rashes. Accompanying Dr. Browne on the trip were Dr. Girish Sethuraman, who presented a talk on burn managemet, and Dr. Michael Rolnick.

Dr. Amal Mattu was a co-chairman and faculty member for the 25th Annual Winter Conference on Emergency Medicine, which was held in St. Maarten, Dutch West Indies, in mid-February. He presented four lectures: "Emergency Cardiology Update: The Articles You've Got to Know," "Infections in the Elderly: Simple Pearls to Save a Life," "Acute Coronary Syndromes in the Elderly: Where the Guidelines Fall Short," and "The Crashing Asthmatic--Pearls and Pitfalls."

Michael Bond, Mike Winters, Haney Mallemat, and Rob Rogers recently returned from Copper Mountain, Colorada, where they were on the faculty for the Rocky Mountain Winter Conference on Emergency Medicine. Each of them presented three lectures during this national meeting.

John Greenwood, MD, and his book, PressorDex, are featured in the December/January issue of EM Resident, published by the Emergency Medicine Residents' Association. While John was a resident in our program, he chaired EMRA's Critical Care Division, where the idea for the book was launched. He is now a critical care medicine fellow, and his printed book and its iOS app are considered two of EMRA's leading educational resources.

Fermin Barrueto, Jr, MD, is the lead of author of an article published in the October issue of Pediatric Clinics of North America. The topic of this article, co-authored with a pediatrician at the University of Maryland and a clinical pharmacologist from George Washington University, is poisoning, emphasizing its prevention but also discussing cutting-edge treatments and new research that is guiding the therapeutic approach.