Two emergency medicine faculty members presented lectures at Maryland EMS Care 2018, hosted by Maryland’s Regional EMS Advisory Council and the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems in Ocean City in late April. This annual event is designed as a continuing education opportunity for emergency medical services providers, nurses, and fire/rescue personnel. Roger Stone, MD, MS, who is the EMS Medical Director for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, presented “Attitudes and Culture in Our Fire-Based EMS Systems” and co-led a course on management of the difficult airway. Jenny Guyther, MD,presented the lecture titled “Pediatric Seizures: Subtle versus Status.”
David Marcozzi, MD, Associate Professor and Director of Population Health, Department of Emergency Medicine, and Co-Director, Program in Health Disparities and Population Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, is the lead author of “Trends in the Contribution of Emergency Departments to the Provision of Hospital-Associated Health Care in the USA,” published in this month's issue of International Journal of Health Services (48[2]:267-288). His co-authors from the Department of Emergency Medicine are Nicole Baehr, Emergency Medicine Healthcare Program Analyst, and Brian Browne, MD, Professor and Chairman. They collaborated with Brendan Carr, MD, MA, MS, Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine, and Aisha Liferidge, MD, MPH, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (a 2006 graduate of the emergency medicine residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center).
Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, participated in a roundtable discussion held by the Health Subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee of the US House of Representatives on March 22. The purpose of the discussion was to present strategies for alleviating Medicare red tape burdens for patients and health care providers. Those strategies include standardizing documentation guidelines, eliminating duplicative paperwork and reporting burdens, modernizing laws to improve providers’ ability to work together in efficient pathways and to lower costs for patients and taxpayers, and expanding the use of innovations such as telecommunications in health care. In addition to being on our emergency medicine faculty, Dr. Hirshon is a member of the Board of Directors of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Todd Crocco, MD, has joined the Department of Emergency Medicine, at the academic rank of Professor and as its Director for Pre-Hospital Care and Telemedicine. In his previous position, he was Chief Business Development Officer at West Virginia University Health Sciences Center and Medical Director of WVU’s Clinical and Pharmacologic Research Center. Dr. Crocco received his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and completed the emergency medicine residency and an emergency medical services fellowship at the University of Cincinnati/University Hospital.
The 3rd Annual Emergency Cardiology Symposium, “Cardiac Conundrums in EM 2018,” was held on March 28 on the UMMC campus. The event drew 250 in-person attendees and 1300 Livestream viewers from around the world. Amal Mattu, MD, organized the program and invited nationally known specialists in emergency cardiology to lecture on cutting-edge topics in the management of cardiac emergencies in adults and children. The speakers included Mimi Lu, MD (“The Crashing Cardiac Kid”), current faculty member and 2008 graduate of our emergency medicine residency, and Suzanne DeMeester, MD (“Wonder Women: Exploring the Gender Gap in ACS”), a 2006 residency graduate, now an attending physician at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor. All of the lectures can be viewed at https://livestream.com/UMEmergencyMed/EMCard2018.
Brian Browne, MD, recently presented testimony to the United States Sentencing Commission during a hearing on fentanyl, fentanyl analogs, and synthetic cannabinoids. He described a growing trend in the illicit drug trade, the addition of fentanyl to heroin packaging by “street pharmacists,” and its impact on unsuspecting users and on ambulance crews and emergency departments as they respond to overdoses. The commission, an independent agency within the judicial branch of the federal government, provides guidance to courts and assists in the development of crime policies. Zachary Dezman, MD, MS, MS, Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, assisted Dr. Browne with the preparation of his testimony and attended the hearing.
As a member of the Guideline Development Group of the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Laura J. Bontempo, MD, MEd, co-authored “Clinical Practice Guideline: Evaluation of the Neck Mass in Adults Executive Summary,” which was published in the September 2017 issue of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (157[3]:355-371). The full text of the guideline is available in a supplement to the same issue (157[2S]:S1-S30). Its primary purpose is to promote the efficient, effective, and accurate diagnostic workup of neck masses to ensure that adults with potentially malignant disease receive prompt diagnosis and intervention to optimize outcomes.