Department Blog

Douglas Sward, MD, Kinjal Sethuraman, MD, MPH, and Robert Rosenthal, MD, published the article “Carbon Monoxide and ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction: Case Reports” in the January/February 2016 issue of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine.

Terry Mulligan DO, MPH, was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine at the organization’s 22nd Annual Scientific Assembly, held in Las Vegas in late February. He also chairs the organization’s International Emergency Medicine Committee and Government Affairs Committee.

Hong Kim, MD, MPH, is the lead author of the article titled “Reversal of Opioid-Induced Ventilatory Depression Using Low-Dose Naloxone (0.04 Mg): A Case Series,” published in the March 2016 issue of The Journal of Medical Toxicology. His co-author is Lewis Nelson, MD, from New York University School of Medicine/Bellevue Hospital Center.

R. Gentry Wilkerson, MD, and Bryan D. Hayes, PharmD, published a letter in this month's issue of Clinical Toxicology. They were reacting to a case description in the October issue of the same journal, in which a patient’s uvular edema was linked to MDMA and treated with icatibant. Drs. Wilkerson and Hayes advised caution about the assumption that the drug induced the angioedema and about the use of such an expensive medication when a causative link is questionable.

Amal Mattu, MD, is a co-author of the article titled “The Electrocardiogram in the ACS Patient: High-Risk Electrocardiographic Presentations Lacking Anatomically Oriented ST-Segment Elevation,” published in the March issue of The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. In this article, Dr. Mattu and his colleagues from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Madison County EMS in Virginia review five electrocardiographic patterns (“STEMI equivalents”) caused by occlusion of an epicardial coronary artery, which threatens the left ventricle and thus heightens the risk of poor patient outcome without prompt recognition and intervention.

Mike Abraham, MD, is the lead author of an article on the diagnosis and treatment of influenza, published in the March issue of The Journal of Emergency Medicine. The report was approved by the Clinical Guidelines Committee of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. One of Mike's co-authors on this paper is Jack Perkins, MD, a 2007 graduate of our EM/IM residency, who is now on the faculty of Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke. Their article is available at www.jem-journal.com/article/S0736-4679%2815%2901147-6/abstract.

The February issue of The American Journal of Emergency Medicine contains an analysis of factors influencing emergency department (ED) performance, based on a national data set compiled by the Emergency Department Benchmarking Alliance. The authors are Laura Pimentel, MD, CPME, and Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, and their colleagues from the business schools at City University of New York, the University of Maryland, College Park, and American University. The investigators found that the most important correlate with patients’ departure before completion of treatment was the time between arrival in the ED and the time the patient was first seen by a care provider. The most important factors in the time to first contact with a care provider were physician and nursing staffing levels and ED operations, not patient volume. The title of the article is “Drivers of ED Efficiency: A Statistical and Cluster Analysis of Volume, Staffing, and Operations.

Ben Lawner, DO, MS, EMT-P, and Kevin Seaman, MD (Executive Director, Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems), were panelists at "EMS Today: The JEMS Conference and Exhibition," which was held in Baltimore in late February. Their topic was the emerging public health threat of designer drugs such as MDMA (Ecstasy) at music festivals.

Stephen Thom, MD, PhD, Professor, Ming Yang, MD, Research Associate, Kevin Yu, MD, Lead Research Specialist, Veena Bhopale, MPhil, PhD, Laboratory Manager, and Svitlana Kovtun, MD, Research Specialist, in the Department of Emergency Medicine, with colleagues from the Perelman School of Medicine, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, and Roxborough Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia, published “Measurements of CD34+/CD45-dim Stem Cells Predict Healing of Diabetic Neuropathic Wounds” in the February issue of the journal Diabetes. After analyzing specimens from patients with foot ulcers, the investigators concluded that the number of blood-borne stem/progenitor cells and the cellular content of hypoxia-inducible factors are indicators of how well wounds will respond to treatment.

George Willis, MD, our department's Director of Medical Student Education, and Phil Magidson, MD, MPH, a fourth-year EM/IM resident, have been elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society by its Beta Chapter at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. AOA members are most commonly thought of as top-tier medical students, but the society can also nominate and elect physician educators who exemplify leadership qualities, academic excellence, and professionalism. That is the honor bestowed on Dr. Willis and Dr. Magidson. Congratulations to them!