Department Blog

Elizabeth Phillips, MD, MA, has been appointed chair of the Committee on Ethics and Judicial Affairs for MedChi (The Maryland State Medical Society). This committee considers questions of medical ethics, especially in relation to social policy issues, interprofessional relations, hospital relations, confidentiality, advertising, communications with the media, fees and charges, record practice matters and professional rights and responsibilities.

Another article from our EM research group:  Jasjeet Bhullar, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Veena Bhopale, MPhil, PhD, Lab Manager, Ming Yang, MD, Research Associate, Kinjal Sethuraman, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, and Stephen R. Thom, MD, PhD, Professor, published the article titled “Microparticle Formation by Platelets Exposed to High Gas Pressures – An Oxidative Stress Response” in the December issue of Free Radical Biology & Medicine.

Michael D. Witting, MD, MS, and Mak Moayedi, MD, along with Kathy Dunning (a student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine) and colleagues from MidMichigan Medical Center and Mercy Medical Center, published the article titled “Power Injection Through Ultrasound-Guided IV Lines: Safety and Efficacy Under an Institutional Policy” in the January issue of The Journal of Emergency Medicine. Their study demonstrated the safety of an institutional protocol that allows high-speed injection through proximal arm ultrasound-guided IV lines, provided the line is inspected and tested with 10 mL of saline before injection.

Hussain M. Alhashem, MBBS, Carmen Avendano, MD, Bryan D. Hayes, PharmD, and Michael E. Winters, MD, published a case report titled “Persistent Life-Threatening Hemorrhage After Administration of Idarucizumab” in the January issue of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Ben Lawner, DO, MS, EMT-P, with co-authors J.V. Nable, MD, EMT-P, and William Brady, MD, published a review of recent emergency medical services articles in the November issue of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Their article focuses on trends in prehospital care and medical conditions at the intersection of EMS and emergency medicine, addressing the following topics: acute myocardial infarction, behavioral emergencies, cardiac arrest, sepsis, stroke, and trauma. 

Laura Bontempo, MD, MEd, Michael Bond, MD, and Bryan Hayes, PharmD, with colleagues from the School of Pharmacy (Michelle C. Hines, PharmD, Brent Reed, PharmD, and Vijay Ivaturi, PhD), published the article titled “Diltiazem Versus Metoprolol for Rate Control in Atrial Fibrillation with Rapid Ventricular Response in the Emergency Department” in the December issue of the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy (73[24]:2068-2076). Based on their retrospective review of 100 patients’ records, the authors found that the most significant predictor of medication selection in the ED was the drug class used for rate control before the ED admission.

Dr. Amal Mattu and his colleagues from the University of Virginia, the University of California San Francisco, and Oregon Health & Sciences University, have back-to-back electrocardiographic case reports in the December issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine. The first article (68:671-3) describes the assessment of a woman with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, who came to the emergency department when she experienced palpitations and weakness. The second report (68:674-7) describes a woman with hypertension and diabetes mellitus, who sought emergency treatment for chest pain, nausea, dyspnea, and diaphoresis. This column in Annals starts with a description of patients’ presentations, including the ECG, and asks the reader to reach a diagnosis before reading the experts’ analysis.

Zachary Dezman, MD, MS, and Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, with colleagues from Duke University, published the article titled “Hotspots and Causes of Motor Vehicle Crashes in Baltimore, Maryland: A Geospatial Analysis of Five Years of Police Crash and Census Data” in the November issue of Injury.

Steve Schenkel, MD, MPP, and Teresa Kostelec, BSN, from the ED at Mercy Medical Center; Laura Pimentel, MD, CPME, Chief Medical Officer of the Maryland Emergency Medicine Network; and Ivonne Berges, PhD, and Glenn Ostir, PhD, from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, published the article titled “Cognitive Health and Risk of ED Revisit in Underserved Older Adults” in the October issue of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine (34[10]:1973?1976). Their study group, mostly African-American women with an average age of 75 years, had overall cognitive scores lower than population norms. The investigators found a significant association between cognitive health and the odds of return to the ED in 60 or 90 days. Their observations hold implications for the format and content of discharge instructions, especially for patients with impaired cognitive function.

Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, published the article titled “Using Timely Survey-Based Information Networks to Collect Data on Best Practices for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response: Illustrative Case from the American College of Emergency Physicians' Ebola Surveys,” which was published in the August issue of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness (10[4]:681‒690). Through the electronic distribution of surveys that assessed medical facilities’ readiness to assess and treat people infected with the Ebola virus, Dr. Hirshon and his co-authors, members of ACEP's Ebola Expert Panel, demonstrated the ability to monitor the delivery of health care during public health emergencies and to implement “real-time” modifications in health care processes as warranted by survey results.