Emergency Medicine Commons^™

Spinal Cord Trauma: An Overview Of Normal Structure And Function, Primary And Secondary Mechanisms Of Injury, And Emerging Treatment Modalities, Daniel Morin

Senior Honors Theses

The structures of the spinal cord and vertebral column are designed to provide flexibility, while still providing ample protection for the spinal cord deep within. While it does offer remarkable protection against most routine trauma, the spinal cord is still vulnerable to high-force etiologies of trauma and may become damaged as a result. These events are referred to as primary injury. Following the initial injury, the body’s own physiological responses cause a cascade of deleterious effects, known as secondary injury. Secondary injury is a major therapeutic target in mitigating the effects of spinal cord injury (SCI), and much research ...

Time Is Money: The True Cost Of Helicopter Ems (Hems), Jerome Rogich, Eike Blohm, Joseph Tennyson

Senior Scholars Program

Background: Multiple studies have been published that attempt to examine relevant outcomes of utilizing helicopter transport over traditional ground-based emergency medical services (EMS). Unfortunately, these studies suffer from poor methodology and are confounded by substantial differences in training and expertise of the personnel involved in the medical transfer. The EMS system in Central Massachusetts is unique in that when a physician from an outside hospital calls for an HEMS transport, the pilot determines if weather conditions permit to fly without having any further knowledge about the patient. If flying is deemed unsafe, the helicopter personnel will retrieve the patient by ...

A Global Health Research Checklist For Clinicians., Rasha D Sawaya, Kristen A Breslin, Eiman Abdulrahman, Jennifer I Chapman, Dafina M Good, Lili Moran, Paul C Mullan, Oluwakemi Badaki-Makun

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Global health research has become a priority in most international medical projects. However, it is a difficult endeavor, especially for a busy clinician. Navigating the ethics, methods, and local partnerships is essential yet daunting.To date, there are no guidelines published to help clinicians initiate and complete successful global health research projects. This Global Health Research Checklist was developed to be used by clinicians or other health professionals for developing, implementing, and completing a successful research project in an international and often low-resource setting. It consists of five sections: Objective, Methodology, Institutional Review Board and Ethics, Culture and partnerships, and ...

Superglue In First Aid Boxes, Raghav Bhargava, James H.A. Hassall

International Journal of First Aid Education

No abstract provided.

A Survey Of Language Diversity And Communication In Indian Academic Emergency Departments, Rebecca S. Allen, Lalit Narayan, Jay Pandya, Zohray Talib, Katherine A. Douglass

GW Research Days 2016 - Present

Background

Communication in the Emergency Department (ED) is particularly important given the acuity of patients and lack of prior medical history. In India, patient care is further complicated by the many spoken languages, the regional differentiation in language and the fact that medical training is primarily delivered in English. Our objective was to document language diversity among clinicians in Indian EDs linked to an international training program and explore issues related to clinician-clinician and clinician-patient communication.

Methodology

A cross-sectional survey of ED clinicians was conducted from May to July 2017. Survey participants were recruited via convenience sampling by a researcher ...

Recurrent Episodes Of Acute Pancreatitis Present To The Ed With More Severe Disease By Ct Than First-Time Acute Pancreatitis, Maryam Boumezrag, Hamza Ijaz, Lorna Richards, Sormeh Harounzadeh, Angeline Johny, Paige Kulie, Caitlin Davis, Yan Ma, Maxine Le Saux, Andrew C. Meltzer

GW Research Days 2016 - Present

Study Objective: Approximately 30% of patients with one episode of acute pancreatitis experience a recurrent episode. The objective of this study is to compare the severity of the first-time episode versus recurrent episodes of acute pancreatitis based on CT scan.

Methods: This study was conducted as part of a retrospective chart review at a single academic urban emergency department from 2012-2016. Criteria for inclusion included clinical symptoms of pancreatitis, age greater than or equal to 18 years, ED diagnosis of acute pancreatitis, and, an abdominal CT scan within 24 hours of triage. Exclusion criteria were traumatic cause of acute pancreatitis ...

Triple Valve Infective Endocarditis - A Late Diagnosis, Edme R. Mustafa, Sineta C. Firulescu, Cristina D. Parvanescu, Beatrice A. Chisalau, Georgica C. Tartea, Ion C. Efrem, Andreea L. Barbulescu, Stefan C. Dinescu, Paulina L. Ciurea, Lucretiu Radu, Ananu F. Vreju

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Behcet's disease is a systemic vasculitis of unknown aetiology with cardiac involvement as well as damage to other organs. Whether the sterile valvular inflammation which occurs in this autoimmune disease predisposes to bacterial adhesion and infective endocarditis is not yet established.

We present the case of a patient with Behcet disease in which transthoracic echocardiography showed mobile masses on the aortic, tricuspid, and mitral valves, leading to multivalvular infective endocarditis diagnosis, possibly in the context of valvular inflammation.

The case presented in this article confirms observation of other studies, namely that ultrasonography plays an important role in the diagnosis ...

Using Support Vector Machines On Photoplethysmographic Signals To Discriminate Between Hypovolemia And Euvolemia, Natasa Reljin, Gary Zimmer, Yelena Malyuta, Kirk Shelley, Yitzhak Mendelson, David J. Blehar, Chad E. Darling, Ki H. Chon

Open Access Articles

Identifying trauma patients at risk of imminent hemorrhagic shock is a challenging task in intraoperative and battlefield settings given the variability of traditional vital signs, such as heart rate and blood pressure, and their inability to detect blood loss at an early stage. To this end, we acquired N = 58 photoplethysmographic (PPG) recordings from both trauma patients with suspected hemorrhage admitted to the hospital, and healthy volunteers subjected to blood withdrawal of 0.9 L. We propose four features to characterize each recording: goodness of fit (r2), the slope of the trend line, percentage change, and the absolute change between ...

Transabdominal Versus Transvaginal, Kyla Camille Gray

Grace Peterson Nursing Research Colloquium

Background: In the United States, there has been a 21% increase in the occurrence of premature births within the last two decades. These children are also more likely to require lifelong therapies, assistive technologies, mobility devices, and more supportive services throughout their time in school. Globally, preterm births, and their preventions, have become a topic of interest. One method that has had significant success rates is placing a cerclage to prevent cervical dilation; while simultaneously treating prophylactically for early delivery.

Objectives: The purpose of this integrative literature review was to focus on which placement of cerclages, transabdominal or transvaginal, is ...

Implementing "At-The-Elbow" Training In The Emergency Department: Feasibility, Outcomes, And Lessons, Alexandra Morena, Celine Larkin, Esther Boama-Nyarko, John Davey, Edwin D. Boudreaux

Community Engagement and Research Symposia

Introduction: Individuals who die by suicide often make ED contact the year prior to death. In accordance with Joint Commission recommendations, universal suicide screening has been implemented across UMass Memorial Health Care EDs, in an effort to improve quality of care for patients with suicide risk. We developed clinician decision aids, clinical workflows, and electronic health record (EHR) items, and introduced them using an 'at-the-elbow' training model in the ED.

Methods: We programmed a data visualization application (Tableau), which pulls data directly from the EHR, to measure suicide-positive detection rates and physician secondary screener completion. Training logs were completed following ...

Addressing Positive Suicide Screens In The Emergency Department: The Importance Of Post-Discharge Follow-Up, Colette Houssan, Alexandra Morena, Rachel Davis-Martin, Celine Larkin, Edwin D. Boudreaux

Community Engagement and Research Symposia

Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death and many of those who die by suicide have visited an emergency department (ED) in the months prior to their death. Thus, identification and treatment of suicidal ideation (SI) in the ED is essential to suicide prevention efforts. Although a recent effort to implement universal SI screening has identified more patients with suicide risk, there are still barriers to further risk assessment and intervention, including: patients being too ill, language differences, physician caseload, length of SI evaluation and intervention, staff availability and communication with emergency mental health (EMH) services, and stigma surrounding ...

Identifying Gaps And Launching Resident Wellness Initiatives: The 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit., Fareen Zaver, Nicole Battaglioli, William Denq, Anne Messman, Arlene Chung, Michelle Lin, Emberlynn L Liu

Emergency Medicine Faculty Publications

Introduction: Burnout, depression, and suicidality among residents of all specialties have become a critical focus for the medical education community, especially among learners in graduate medical education. In 2017 the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) updated the Common Program Requirements to focus more on resident wellbeing. To address this issue, one working group from the 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit (RWCS) focused on wellness program innovations and initiatives in emergency medicine (EM) residency programs.

Methods: Over a seven-month period leading up to the RWCS event, the Programmatic Initiatives workgroup convened virtually in the Wellness Think Tank, an online ...

Neonatal Purpura Fulminans, A Rare Genetic Disorder Due To Protein C Deficiency: A Case Report., Ghazala Irfan Kazi, Emaduddin Siddiqui, Saadia Tabassum, Badar Afzal, Irum Qamar Khan

Department of Emergency Medicine

Neonatal Purpura Fulminans is a rare and fatal disorder associated with perivascular haemorrhage and disseminated intravascular coagulation. Early clinical recognition, timely investigation and treatment is utmost important. A 6 days old baby boy was brought to emergency with blackish ulcers all over the body. Initially these were over the feet and scalp but later appeared on the abdomen. On examination, child was vitally stable, mildly icteric and had multiple erythematous large bullous blackish lesions on scalp, lower abdomen, perineum, back and soles. Neonatal reflexes and systemic examination was normal. Laboratory investigations showed normal CBC, PT/APTT and Protein S level ...

Tobacco Dependence Treatment In The Emergency Department: A Randomized Trial Using The Multiphase Optimization Strategy., Steven L Bernstein, James Dziura, June Weiss, Ted Miller, Katrina A Vickerman, Lauretta E Grau, Michael V Pantalon, Lorien Abroms, Linda M Collins, Benjamin Toll

Prevention and Community Health Faculty Publications

Background

Tobacco dependence remains the leading preventable cause of death in the developed world. Smokers are disproportionately from lower socioeconomic groups, and may use the hospital emergency department (ED) as an important source of care. A recent clinical trial demonstrated the efficacy of a multicomponent intervention to help smokers quit, but the independent contributions of those components is unknown.

Methods

This is a full-factorial (16-arm) randomized trial in a busy hospital ED of 4 tobacco dependence interventions: brief motivational interviewing, nicotine replacement therapy, referral to a telephone quitline, and a texting program. The trial utilizes the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST ...

Human Factors And Simulation In Emergency Medicine, Emily M. Hayden, Ambrose H. Wong, Jeremy Ackerman, Margaret K. Sande, Charles Lei, Leo Kobayashi, Michael Cassara, Dylan D. Cooper, Kimberly Perry, William E. Lewandowski, Mark W. Scerbo

Psychology Faculty Publications

This consensus group from the 2017 Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference "Catalyzing System Change through Health Care Simulation: Systems, Competency, and Outcomes" held in Orlando, Florida, on May 16, 2017, focused on the use of human factors (HF) and simulation in the field of emergency medicine (EM). The HF discipline is often underutilized within EM but has significant potential in improving the interface between technologies and individuals in the field. The discussion explored the domain of HF, its benefits in medicine, how simulation can be a catalyst for HF work in EM, and how EM can collaborate with HF professionals ...

Prognostic Significance Of Optic Nerve Sheath Diameter On Computed Tomography Scan With Severity Of Blunt Traumatic Brain Injury In The Emergency Department., Shahan Waheed, Muhamamd Akbar Baig, Emaduddin Siddiqui, Danyal Jamil, Asher Feroze

Department of Emergency Medicine

Optic nerve sheath diameter measurement (ONSD) has been associated with identifying the prognosis of traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients. The study was planned to evaluate the prognostic value of ONSD measured on the initial brain computed tomography (CT) scan performed on patients with blunt TBI in the emergency department(ED). This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, and comprised data of moderate and severe TBI patients from January to December 2014. ONSD for each eye on the initial CT scan and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was measured upon patient presentation. Correlation between presentation GCS ...

Usability And Reliability Of Smart Glasses For Secondary Triage During Mass Casualty Incidents, John Broach, Alexander Hart, Matthew Griswold, Jeffrey T. Lai, Edward W. Boyer, Aaron B. Skolnik, Peter R. Chai

Emergency Medicine Publications and Presentations

Wearable smart glasses like Google Glass provide real-time video and image transmission to remote viewers. The use of Google Glass and other Augmented Reality (AR) platforms in mass casualty incidents (MCIs) can provide incident commanders and physicians at receiving hospitals real-time data regarding injuries sustained by victims at the scene. This real-time data is critical to allocation of hospital resources prior to receiving victims of a MCI. Remote physician participation in real-time MCI care prior to victims' hospital arrival may improve triage, and direct emergency and critical care services to those most in need. We report the use of Google ...

Low-Energy Bluetooth For Detecting Real-World Penetrance Of Bystander Naloxone Kits: A Pilot Study, Jeffrey T. Lai, Brittany Chapman, Katherine L. Boyle, Edward W. Boyer, Peter R. Chai

Open Access Articles

Opioid overdose is a growing public health emergency in the United States. The antidote naloxone must be administered rapidly after opioid overdose to prevent death. Bystander or "take-home" naloxone programs distribute naloxone to opioid users and other community members to increase naloxone availability at the time of overdose. However, data describing the natural history of take-home naloxone in the hands of at-risk individuals is lacking. To understand patterns of naloxone uptake in at-risk users, we developed a smart naloxone kit that uses low-energy Bluetooth (BLE) to unobtrusively detect the transit of naloxone through a hospital campus. In this paper, we ...

Optimal Implementation Of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs In The Emergency Department, Joshua Elder, Garrett Depalma, Jesse M. Pines

Emergency Medicine Faculty Publications

The opioid epidemic is the most significant modern-day, public health crisis. Physicians and lawmakers have developed methods and practices to curb opioid use. This article describes one method, prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP), through the lens of how to optimize use for emergency departments (ED). EDs have rapidly become a central location to combat opioid abuse and drug diversion. PDMPs can provide emergency physicians with comprehensive prescribing information to improve clinical decisions around opioids. However, PDMPs vary tremendously in their accessibility and usability in the ED, which limits their effectiveness at the point of care. Problems are complicated by varying ...

Acute Cardiac Air Embolism, Leslie Billello, Brian Gacioch, James P. Phillips

Emergency Medicine Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.