Department Blog

Kyle Fischer, MD, MPH, published a letter in the April issue of JAMA Neurology, in which he discussed the methodology used by a group of German physicians in their study of the dispatch of a stroke emergency mobile unit and use of prehospital thrombolysis. Dr. Fischer's comments can be read at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25867723.

You can read summaries of recent publications on the practice of emergency medicine in the current issue of the International Journal of Emergency Medicine. That issue contains a compilation by Drs. Maite Huis in 't Veld, Tu Carol Nguyen, Joe Martinez, and Amal Mattu, in which they summarize 33 articles on a variety of emergency medicine topics, including airway management, cardiology, infectious diseases, and toxicology. Their article is available at www.intjem.com/content/pdf/s12245-015-0055-6.pdf.

Bryan Hayes, PharmD, is the lead author of the article titled “Social Media in the Emergency Medicine Residency Curriculum: Social Media Responses to the Residents’ Perspective Article,” which has been published online by Annals of Emergency Medicine. The article is highlighted as an Editor’s Choice for Clinicians.

Amal Mattu, MD, was the keynote speaker at the 2nd Dutch Congress on Emergency Cardiology, held at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Dordrecht, Netherlands, on March 26 and 27. He presented lectures on the following topics:

• Electrocardiography of Myocardial Ischemia and Mimics
• High Risk Arrhythmias
• Electrocardiography of the Patient With Syncope
• Modern Management of Cardiogenic Shock
• ACS in the Elderly Patient: When Traditional Teaching Falls Short
• Emergency Cardiology 2015: The Articles You Must Know!

Kinjal Sethuraman, MD, MPH, is pleased to announce that her mentee, Taylor Douglas, a second-year student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, has been awarded a $1000 research grant from the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association. The grant will fund the statistical analysis of data that Ms. Douglas has collected regarding children treated by the Hyperbaric Medicine Program in the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. The project will delineate the characteristics of children at greatest risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Amal Mattu, MD, was the keynote speaker at the 2015 Saudi Emergency Medicine Assembly in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, held on February 9 and 10, 2015. The title of his plenary address was “Ten Things You Must Consider in the Crashing Patient: Beyond A-B-C and ACLS.” In addition, he presented lectures titled “ACS Update 2015” and “Acute Heart Failure” and led a 6-hour preconference workshop on advanced ECG interpretation, covering myocardial ischemia, dysrhythmias, and syncope.

The current issue of the International Journal of Emergency Medicine contains an article by Maite A. Huis in' t Veld, MD, Ty Nguyen, DO, Joe Martinez, MD, and Amal Mattu, MD, which summarizes 33 "need-to-know" articles from the recent emergency medicine literature. The authors organized the review in 13 topic areas, including airway management, cardiology, infectious diseases, orthopedics, and ultrasound. The article is available at www.intjem.com/content/8/1/5.

Michael Allison, MD, Michael Scott, MD, Kami Hu, MD, Michael Witting, MD, MS, and Michael Winters, MD, published the article titled “High Initial Tidal Volumes in Emergency Department Patients at Risk for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome” in the April issue of The Journal of Critical Care. After retrospectively reviewing the charts of patients intubated in the emergency department, the authors concluded that tidal volumes used during ventilation were higher than the recommended level in patients in whom acute respiratory distress syndrome emerged within 48 hours.

Stephen Schenkel, MD, MPP, Clinical Director of the Emergency Department at Mercy Medical Center, published a thoughtful and compassionate editorial, “Learning from the Stories of Homeless Alcoholics,” in the February issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine. His essay accompanies an article in the same issue, by UMEM residency alumnus Ryan McCormack, MD, and his colleagues, which chronicles the stories of 20 homeless, alcohol-dependent people who frequent the ED at Bellevue Hospital.

Jennifer Guyther, MD, and Ben Lawner, DO, MS, EMT-P, served on the faculty for the 22nd Annual Conference of the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation, presented in Baltimore in late February. Dr. Guyther's talk was titled “Sticks, Stones and Broken Bones: Pediatric Injuries.” Dr. Lawner gave three lectures: "EMS Darwin Awards: Strategies for Survival and Evolution,” “Resuscitation Review 2014: Articles You've Got to Know," and "How Low Do We Go to Stop the Flow? Prehospital Trauma Resuscitation." Dr. Guyther is a Fire Surgeon in the Baltimore County Fire Department, and Dr. Lawner is the Deputy EMS Medical Director in the Balitmore City Fire Department.