Department Blog

Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, is the lead author of "America's Emergency Care Environment: A State-by-State Report Card," published in the February issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Hirshon chairs ACEP's Report Card Task Force, which rated five aspects of the nation's emergency care environment: access to care, quality and patient safety, medical liability, public health and injury prevention, and disaster preparedness. This year's report card gives the environment in which the emergency care system operates an overall grade of D+.

Ben Lawner, DO, is featured in a video produced by the Baltimore City Fire Department, which explains the life-saving capability of bystander CPR. The video is based on an incident involving a 12-year-old boy who experienced sudden cardiac arrest. The scenario is described by the paramedics who responded to the scene, and Dr. Lawner provides the medical perspective. The purpose of the video is public education as well as promotion of the CPR classes sponsored by the BCFD. You can watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gdYmpGXcOU&feature=youtu.be.

Rob Rogers and Emilie Calvello have been appointed Extraordinary Associate Professor and Extraordinary Senior Lecturer, respectively, in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa. These appointments recognize the contributions that Dr. Rogers and Dr. Calvello have made, and will continue to make, toward the education of emergency physicians in South Africa and the development of the specialty in that country.

Dr. Amal Mattu presented three lectures at the 14th Annual Multispecialty Conference on Medical Negligence and Risk Management, held in Los Cabos, Mexico, in early January. The topics of his talks were “Dysrhythmias in the Emergency Department: Myths and Pitfalls,” “Emergency Department Care of Avoidable Disasters,” and “Cooling the Fire! Modern Management of Cardiac Arrest.”

Congratulations to Dr. Larry Weiss, recipient of the 2014 David Wagner Award from the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. The award, the most prestigious among AAEM's honors, recognizes national leadership in emergency medicine. Dr. Weiss served as president of AAEM from 2008 to 2010.

Our department's Global Health Section published two articles in the December issue of Academic Emergency Medicine, based on breakout sessions held during the 2013 Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference, "Global Health and Emergency Care: A Research Agenda." Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, and Kinjal Sethuraman, MD, MPH, co-authored "Ethics in Acute Care Research: A Global Perspective and Research Agenda" (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acem.12271/abstract). Emilie Calvello, MD, MPH, and Christian Theodosis, MD, are co-authors of "Emergency Care and Health Systems: Consensus-based Recommendations and Future Research Priorities" (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acem.12266/abstract).

An article on subarachnoid hemorrhage, based on an evidence-based debate by our residency's Journal Club, has been named the fourth most-read article in the 2013 EM literature by Medscape from WebMD. Congratulations to Drs. Ali Farzad, Bethany Radin, Jason Oh, Heidi Teague, Brian Euerle, JV Nable, Aisha Liferidge, Andy Windsor, and Michael Witting on this impressive accomplishment! The article was published in the May issue of The Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Bond and Dr. Mike Abraham on the publication of their new book, Orthopedic Emergencies: Expert Management for the Emergency Physician. This 283-page book, with chapters on specific injuries, infections, and procedures, was published by Cambridge University Press.

Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, PhD, MPH, and Ben Lawner, DO, EMT-P, are co-authors of an article about the pain management protocol used by paramedics and EMTs in Maryland. The article describes the revision of the protocol using evidence-based guidelines, the training program that led to its statewide use, and the post-implementation assessment that revealed an increase in the per-patient dose of morphine. The article is available in the October issue of Prehospital Emergency Care.

Congratulations to Van Pham, Carina Sorenson, and JV Nable on their publication of a case report in the September issue of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. They describe the management of a 74-year-old woman who came to the ED because of pain and swelling in her legs. She was ultimately found to have acquired Factor VIII deficiency.