Medical Specialties Commons^™

Using Medicare Claims To Estimate Risk-Adjusted Performance Of Pennsylvania Trauma Centers, Alexis M Zebrowski, Phillipe Loher, David G Buckler, Isidore Rigoutsos, Brendan G Carr, Douglas J Wiebe

Computational Medicine Center Faculty Papers

Trauma centers use registry data to benchmark performance using a standardized risk adjustment model. Our objective was to utilize national claims to develop a risk adjustment model applicable across all hospitals, regardless of designation or registry participation. Patients from 2013-14 Pennsylvania Trauma Outcomes Study (PTOS) registry data were probabilistically matched to Medicare claims using demographic and injury characteristics. Pairwise comparisons established facility linkages and matching was then repeated within facilities to link records. Registry models were estimated using GLM and compared with five claims-based LASSO models: demographics, clinical characteristics, diagnosis codes, procedures codes, and combined demographics/clinical characteristics. Area under the …

Head Injury In Older Adults: To Scan Or Not To Scan? Ten Tips To Make The Best Decision, Audrey-Anne Brousseau, Éric Mercier

Journal of Geriatric Emergency Medicine

Ground-level falls are a leading cause of emergency department (ED) visits by older adults. In addition to understanding the cause of the fall, the assessment of potential fall-induced injuries such as traumatic intracranial hemorrhage, can be highly challenging for emergency clinicians. Premorbid conditions, medications and concomitant injuries can all interfere with the physical examination and impact the prevalence of signs traditionally associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI). When it comes to the decision to potentially investigate for a traumatic intracranial hemorrhage with a brain imaging such as a head computed tomography (CT), many potential predictors and factors will be considered. …

Older Person Fracture Presentation And Management Including Tips For Pain Management, Timothy D W Arnold

Journal of Geriatric Emergency Medicine

Fractures in older adults occur in patients who commonly carry chronic, complex multi-system disease. Nuanced management for these injuries is required in this patient group to reduce mortality, morbidity and improve outcomes.

Adult Female With A Painful And Pruritic Lower Extremity Skin Lesion., Chase Silvers, Christopher Lloyd

Ambulatory and Primary Care Articles

No abstract provided.

Strategies For Recruiting Underrepresented In Medicine And Sexual And Gender Minority Students To Emergency Medicine, Lauren T Wilson, Benjamin Weigel, Edgardo Ordonez, Navdeep Sekhon, Adedoyin Adesina, Anisha Turner, Aleksandr M Tichter, Sarah Bezek, Ynhi T Thomas

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Despite having well-described benefits, diversifying the physician workforce has been an ongoing challenge. Within emergency medicine (EM), multiple professional organizations have identified expanding diversity and inclusion as top priorities. The following is a description of an interactive session held at the SAEM annual meeting addressing recruitment strategies for underrepresented in medicine (URiM) and sexual and gender minority (SGM) students into EM.

METHODS: During the session, the authors provided an overview of the current state of diversity in EM. In the small-group portion of the session, a facilitator helped characterize the challenges programs face in recruiting URiM and SGM students. …

Strategies For Recruiting Underrepresented In Medicine And Sexual And Gender Minority Students To Emergency Medicine, Lauren T Wilson, Benjamin Weigel, Edgardo Ordonez, Navdeep Sekhon, Adedoyin Adesina, Anisha Turner, Aleksandr M Tichter, Sarah Bezek, Ynhi T Thomas

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Despite having well-described benefits, diversifying the physician workforce has been an ongoing challenge. Within emergency medicine (EM), multiple professional organizations have identified expanding diversity and inclusion as top priorities. The following is a description of an interactive session held at the SAEM annual meeting addressing recruitment strategies for underrepresented in medicine (URiM) and sexual and gender minority (SGM) students into EM.

METHODS: During the session, the authors provided an overview of the current state of diversity in EM. In the small-group portion of the session, a facilitator helped characterize the challenges programs face in recruiting URiM and SGM students. …

Beyond Diversity And Inclusion: Developing A Research Agenda For Anti-Racism In Emergency Medicine Education, Edgardo Ordonez, Cassandra Bradby, Jennifer Carey, Sanjey Gupta, Katherine M Hiller, Danielle Miller, Ava Pierce, Kathryn Wiesendanger, Shannon Moffett

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Addressing racism in emergency medicine education is vital for providing optimal training and assessment of physicians in the specialty, developing physicians with the skills necessary to advocate for their patients, and recruiting and retaining a diverse group of physicians. To form a prioritized research agenda, the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) conducted a consensus conference at the annual meeting in May 2022 on addressing racism in emergency medicine, which included a subgroup on education.

METHODS: The education workgroup worked on summarizing the current literature on addressing racism in emergency medicine education, identifying critical knowledge gaps, and creating a …

The Development Of An Educational Workshop To Reframe And Manage Professional Conflict Via A Sex And Gender Lens, Ynhi T Thomas, Anita N Chary, Michelle I Suh, Mehrnoosh Samaei, Valerie Dobiesz, Annahieta Kalantari, Greg Buehler, Devjani Das, Jeannette Wolfe

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Conflict is inevitable in the emergency department, and conflict resolution is an essential skill for emergency providers to master. Effective conflict management can optimize patient care and enhance professional satisfaction. To communicate effectively in high-stress, high-impact situations, sex- and gender-based differences need to be considered.

METHODS: Nine resident, fellow, junior, and senior faculty members of the Academy for Women in Academic Emergency Medicine collaborated to design a 4-h workshop. The focus was on professional communication and conflict resolution in emergency medicine (EM), with special attention on how sex and gender can influence these processes.

RESULTS: The final educational workshop …

Reduced Heart Failure-Related Healthcare Costs With Furoscix Versus In-Hospital Intravenous Diuresis In Heart Failure Patients: The Freedom-Hf Study, Daniel Bensimhon, William S. Weintraub, William Frank Peacock, Tamas Alexy, Dalton Mclean, Donald C. Haas, Kathleen L. Deering, Stefanie J. Millar, Matthew M. Goodwin, John F. Mohr

Abington Jefferson Health Papers

Aim: Compare heart failure (HF) costs of Furoscix use at home compared with inpatient intravenous (IV) diuresis.

Patients & methods: Prospective, case control study of chronic HF patients presenting to emergency department (ED) with worsening congestion discharged to receive Furoscix 80 mg/10 ml 5-h subcutaneous infusion for ≤7 days. 30-day HF-related costs in Furoscix group derived from commercial claims database compared with matched historical patients hospitalized for <72 h.

Results: Of 24 Furoscix patients, 1 (4.2%) was hospitalized in 30-day period. 66 control patients identified and were well-matched for age, sex, ejection fraction (EF), renal function and other comorbidities. Furoscix patients had …

Differential Effects Of An Ed-To-Home Care Transitions Intervention In An Older Adult Population: A Latent Class Analysis, Rebecca K Green, Kenneth J Nieser, Gwen C Jacobsohn, Amy L Cochran, Thomas V Caprio, Jeremy T Cushman, Amy J H Kind, Michael Lohmeier, Manish N Shah

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Older adults frequently return to the emergency department (ED) within 30 days of a visit. High-risk patients can differentially benefit from transitional care interventions. Latent class analysis (LCA) is a model-based method used to segment the population and test intervention effects by subgroup.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to identify latent classes within an older adult population from a randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of an ED-to-home transitional care program and test whether class membership modified the intervention effect.

RESEARCH DESIGN: Participants were randomized to receive the Care Transitions Intervention or usual care. Study staff collected outcomes data through medical …

Coronary Artery Disease As An Independent Predictor Of Cardiovascular Mortality In Covid-19 Patients, Hywel Soney, Nathan Deron, Lucas Wang, Lawrence Hoang, Mujahed Abualfoul, Yi Zhao, Kristopher Aten, Victor Canela, Sri Prathivada, Michael Vu, Manavjot Sidhu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular mortality. However, little is known about the combined effect of coronary artery disease (CAD) and COVID-19 on mortality. We aimed to investigate the incidence of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in COVID-19 patients with CAD.

METHODS: This multicenter retrospective study identified 3,336 COVID-19 patients admitted between March and December 2020. Data points were manually reviewed in the patients' electronic health records. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess whether CAD and its subtypes were associated with mortality.

RESULTS: This study shows that CAD was not an independent predictor of …

Sedation And Analgesia For Reduction Of Pediatric Ileocolic Intussusception, Naveen Poonai, Daniel M Cohen, Doug Macdowell, Rakesh D Mistry, Santiago Mintegi, Simon Craig, Damian Roland, Michael Miller, Itai Shavit, Paediatric Emergency Research Networks (Pern) Paint Study Group;, Yvette Wang, Alan Nager, Theodore Heyming, Rebekah Burns, Indi Trehan, Matthew Lipshaw, Carmen Sulton, Joyce Li, Aderonke Ojo, Susan Kelly, Matthew Thornton, Kerry Caperell, Iluonose Amoni, Anna Abrams, Myto Duong, Muhammad Wassem, Adrienne Davis, Jocelyn Gravel, Evelyne Doyon Trottier, Neta Bar Am, Graham Thompson, Vikram Sabhaney, Garth Meckler, Rini Jain, Samina Ali, Silvia Bressan, Tiziana Zangardi, Giovanna Villa, Martina Giacalone, Michelle Seiler, Cyril Sahyoun, Fabrizio Romano, Zsolt Bognar, Szofia Hajosi-Kalcakosz, Lisa Amir, Said Hachimi-Idrissi, Zanda Pucuka, Astra Zviedre, Emilija Zeltina, Natalie Phillips, Meredith Borland, Sharon O'Brien, Jeanette Marchant, Amit Kochar, Shane George, Victoria Pennington, Mark Lyttle, Jen Browning, Anna Mcloughlin, Stuart Hartshorn, Chaman Urooj, Lucy Johnston, Emily Walton, Deepika Subrahmanyam Puthucode, Phil Peacock, James Conroy, Rafael Marañon, Silvia Garcia, Nuria Cahís, Amaia Cámara-Otegui, Arantxa Gomez, Maria Carbonero, Carlos Angelats-Romero, Adriana Yock-Corrales, Gabriela Hualde, Fabian Spigariol, Alex Donas, Cinthia Gübeli Linné, Alessia Rocchi, Alessia Pedrazzini, Giorgio Cozzi, Dino Barbi, Laura Baggio, Giovana La Fauci, Angela Mauro, Matthew Steimle, Danilo Buonsenso, Irma Ugalde, Gaby Nieva, Charlotte Harper, Idanna Sforzi, Shobhit Jain

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

IMPORTANCE: Ileocolic intussusception is an important cause of intestinal obstruction in children. Reduction of ileocolic intussusception using air or fluid enema is the standard of care. This likely distressing procedure is usually performed without sedation or analgesia, but practice variation exists.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the prevalence of opioid analgesia and sedation and assess their association with intestinal perforation and failed reduction.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study reviewed medical records of children aged 4 to 48 months with attempted reduction of ileocolic intussusception at 86 pediatric tertiary care institutions in 14 countries from January 2017 to December 2019. Of …

Artificial Intelligence Cad Tools In Trauma Imaging: A Scoping Review From The American Society Of Emergency Radiology (Aser) Ai/Ml Expert Panel, David Dreizin, Pedro V Staziaki, Garvit D Khatri, Nicholas M Beckmann, Zhaoyong Feng, Yuanyuan Liang, Zachary S Delproposto, Maximiliano Klug, J Stephen Spann, Nathan Sarkar, Yunting Fu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: AI/ML CAD tools can potentially improve outcomes in the high-stakes, high-volume model of trauma radiology. No prior scoping review has been undertaken to comprehensively assess tools in this subspecialty.

PURPOSE: To map the evolution and current state of trauma radiology CAD tools along key dimensions of technology readiness.

METHODS: Following a search of databases, abstract screening, and full-text document review, CAD tool maturity was charted using elements of data curation, performance validation, outcomes research, explainability, user acceptance, and funding patterns. Descriptive statistics were used to illustrate key trends.

RESULTS: A total of 4052 records were screened, and 233 full-text …

What Regenerative Agriculture Can Teach Medical Students About Human Health, David Ebbott, Dimitrios Papanagnou

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

Burn Injury Assessment Study (Bias): Is There Room To Improve?, Jeffrey Carter, Herbert Phelan, John Friedstat, William Hickerson, James Holmes, James Hwang, Steven Kahn, Alisa Savetamal, Jeffrey Shupp

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

55th Annual Meeting of the American Burn Association, ABA 2023, May 16 - 19, 2023, Dallas, TX

Telehealth Clinical Appropriateness And Quality, Lulu Wang, Anthony Fabiano, Arjun K. Venkatesh, Nick Patel, Judd E. Hollander

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

Contrary to common perception, telehealth is not simply a substitute for in-person care. With an array of modalities—live audio–video, asynchronous patient communication, and remote patient monitoring, to name a few—telehealth creates entirely new avenues of care delivery (Table 1). Although our current care model is reactive—relying on episodic visits to an office or hospital—telehealth allows us to be proactive, filling in the gaps to provide a continuum of care. Widespread uptake of telehealth has created fertile ground for long-overdue health system reform. In this study, we describe essential next steps: redefine telehealth clinical appropriateness, evolve payment models, provide necessary training, …

Ethical Considerations Of Clinical Research In Emergency Care Settings: A Review, Adith Velavan

Honors Scholar Theses

Emergency and acute care settings are some of the most volatile and high intensity areas of any healthcare operation. Better understanding of systems and treatments in these spaces are critical to improving outcomes for the high risk patients that are treated there. Clinical research serves as a cornerstone of modern medical research, and is critical to the further improvement of clinical care in these settings. This thesis serves to explore the ethicality of such research given the constraints of emergency medicine settings. Not only does this thesis provide a strong foundation regarding the history and current practices of clinical research, …

End Of Life In The Ed – Brain Death And Organ Transplantation, Madison Cohen, Robert Griffin, Donald Penney

Research Day

Brain death is defined as the irreversible loss of all brain and brainstem functions. While the criteria for diagnosing brain death have been established and refined since 1995, physicians remain uncomfortable with making the diagnosis leading to delays in pronouncing the patient as brain dead. While seemingly benign, a delay in pronouncing a patient as brain dead can place a financial burden on the family and cause additional and unnecessary emotional distress. Furthermore, delayed pronunciation of death causes improper delegation of the medical care team's resources and loss of the patient's potential to serve as an organ donor. The purpose …

Common Misperceptions Of Child Abuse In Toddler Femur Fractures, Olivia Pruss, Jonathan Warren, Vincent Staggs, Grace Tideman, Collin Erickson, William L. Hennrikus, Richard M. Schwend

Research Days

Background: Current AAOS guidelines recommend that all children younger than thirty-six months with a femur fracture be evaluated for child abuse. However, the chance for abuse in walking-age children is highly unlikely at less than 20%.

Objectives/Goal: The purpose of this study is to identify how a patient’s age and femur fracture morphology impact the likelihood that providers assess a fracture as non-accidental and their decision to pursue further investigation of possible child abuse.

Methods/Design: This was a questionnaire study completed by clinicians from multiple specialties. There were 5 subgroup populations (6, 12, 18, 24, 35 months old) combined with …

“There’S A Difference In Practice When You Have To Make The Decision”: Autonomy In Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship, Katherine Dunne, Vivek Dubey, Sarkan Toy, Camryn Martinez, Kelsey Gavin, Christopher S. Kennedy

Research Days

Background: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education allows individual training programs to define appropriate supervision and autonomy commensurate with the trainees’ knowledge, clinical competence, and patient complexity and acuity. In pediatric emergency medicine (PEM), supervision is not standardized and subject to supervisor discretion, creating variability in trainee autonomy.

Objectives/Goal: To explore the concept of autonomy from the perspectives of PEM fellows and faculty.

Methods/Design: We conducted a qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews of PEM fellows and faculty from a large, single-center pediatric emergency medicine fellowship program. A trained interviewer conducted the interviews over an electronic interview platform. Audio …

Pediatric Educational Outreach To A Community Based Emergency Department: Clinical Management Of The Febrile Infant, Jess Parker, Frances Turcotte Benedict, Emily Hillman, Ryan C. Jacobsen, Ashley K. Sherman, Arjun Sarin

Research Days

Background: Multiple studies have shown variability in the approach to treatment of febrile infants ≤ 60 days of age in community emergency departments (EDs), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently published new guidelines on management of febrile infants. Therefore, an opportunity exists to provide evidence-based recommendations for the care of this patient population to providers in community EDs.

Objectives/Goal: To assess 1) alignment of community ED provider practices with an AAPinformed Clinical practice guideline (CPG) for management of febrile infants ≤ 60 days of age. 2) change in comfort level and degree of alignment after targeted education.

Methods/Design: …

Foley Catheter Algorithm, Chary Mathew

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Urinary catheterization, indwelling and intermittent are simple and common procedures performed in hospitals, emergency rooms, nursing homes, and clinics to ensure adequate urinary output in patients who cannot void efficiently or closely monitor fluid intake and output. Though simple and straightforward in most cases, catheterization can become a challenging procedure with complications in the absence of a standardized protocol for difficult catheterization (Ghaffary et al., 2013). This Quality Improvement Project aimed to develop a standardized Foley catheter algorithm/ flow chart available in our institution's intranet and laminated charts in nursing stations and procedure rooms with Foley catheter insertion indications, types, …

Case Report: Proximal Large Bowel Obstruction Due To Constipation Requiring Subtotal Colectomy And Ileostomy, Brian Lim, Russell Mordecai, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Large bowel obstructions are an abdominal emergency with morbidity and mortality dependent on early diagnosis . This case is of a 58-year-old male who presented with large bowel obstruction due to constipation. Differential diagnosis of large bowel obstruction ranges from benign to emergent should include conditions such as Ogilvie’s syndrome, paralytic ileus, small bowel obstruction to toxic megacolon. This male with only a risk factor of opioid use after spinal surgery. Attempts at medical management were made but the patient ultimately needed definitive management through exploratory laparostomy.

Isolated Temazepam Overdose: A Unique Case Of An Unresponsive Female, Eric Doane

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Cases of acute overdose presenting to the emergency department pose a great challenge given that history can sometimes be limited or at times be inaccurate. While naloxone is routinely given in the field to help reduce opiate’s sedating effects, the routine use of flumazenil has not been routinely adopted in cases of benzodiazepine overdose. This is because, unlike naloxone, there are many medications that act on the GABA receptor, and flumazenil is only specific for binding to the benzodiazepine/GABA receptor. This can lead to an unmasking of other medications that may be co-ingested that also effect the GABA receptor leading …

Design And Preliminary Testing Of A Multi-Use 3d-Printed Splint For Wilderness Medicine, Ryan Desrochers, John Desrochers

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Splinting devices are commonplace in emergency medicine, as musculoskeletal and soft tissue injuries account for a majority of nonfatal events in wilderness medicine. Current splint designs, such as the SAM splint, sacrifice site-specific stability for their portability. This leads to the need for a similarly portable, but more securely fitting splint device. This design aims to provide a lightweight, multi-use, reusable, biodegradable, and inexpensive solution for splinting in wilderness medicine. A thin plate constructed of polylactic acid extruded from a 3D printer becomes easily malleable after submersion in hot water and can be form fitted to almost any location on …

Mixed Beri’S: High Output Heart Failure From Severe Anemia And Thiamine Deficiency, Rohan Umrani, Hiral Amin, Ashley Pinckney, Charles Yang, Daniel Tran

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Background: Severe anemia and thiamine deficiency can independently result in high output heart failure (HOHF) through different mechanisms. Data on the threshold and timeframe at which these etiologies may precipitate HOHF is unclear.

Case: A 63-year-old male with alcohol use disorder consuming 18 drinks/week presented with progressive shortness of breath and lower extremity edema for a few months. Physical exam revealed tachycardia, anasarca, jugular venous distension, Lancisi’s sign, and a midsystolic murmur. Echocardiogram demonstrated EF of 30-35%, dilated left ventricle, and cardiac index of 4.2L/min/m2.

Decision-Making: Heart failure can independently precipitate anemia while severe alcoholism can induce myelosuppression and promote …

Management And Considerations In The Usage Of Txa In Hemorrhagic Trauma Patients, Matthew Petterson, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Tranexamic acid is a synthetic reversible competitive inhibitor that exerts its action on plasminogen, preventing plasmin formation and deterring fibrinolysis.1 Current FDA-approved indications of TXA include heavy menstrual bleeding and short-term blood loss prevention in patients with hemophilia following tooth extraction.1 TXA has more recently been utilized in the management of massive hemorrhagic trauma patients despite this being an off-label use. While TXA has shown promise as a hemostatic agent for this patient population, considerations in the pre-hospital and hospital settings must be examined for its integration into massive hemorrhage protocols.

A Rare Case Of Left Main Vasospasm Resulting In Sudden Cardiac Death, Trinava Roy, Anjeli Patel, Tania Maheshwari, Vasu Palli

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Background: Coronary artery vasospasm (CAV) is transient spasm of a coronary artery that can lead to cardiac ischemia. We present a case with left main (LM) CAV identified on electrocardiogram (ECG) and cardiac catheterization resulting in appropriate therapy.

Case: A 52 year old female with months of spontaneously resolving episodic neck pain, flushing, and diaphoresis presented to the emergency department after a resuscitated cardiac arrest. Initial ECG was without evidence of ischemia, however high-sensitivity troponin (522) was elevated. Telemetry monitoring and ECG showed transient ST elevations in V1 and diffuse ST depressions with left bundle branch block. LV Function was …

Case Report: Uterine Torsion – A Rare Cause Of Right Lower Quadrant Pain, David Ho, James Jung Lee, James Espinosa

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Uterine torsions are very rare. In an article by Matsumoto et al published in 2021, only 25 cases have been documented on PubMed in non-gravid females in the past 20 years. Uterine torsion is defined as rotation of the uterus greater than 45 degrees in the long axis. Rotation can occur anywhere between 45 degrees to 180 degrees. The torsion can be due to a congenital anomaly or an obstetrics emergency such as with an ovarian torsion. Uterine torsions presenting as an obstetrics emergency carries the potential for irreversible ischemic damage to the uterus, and just as in ovarian torsion, …

Bedside Teaching In Emergency Medicine Brief Review And Practical Suggestions, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna, Frank Wheeler, Sergey Medlenov, Robin Lahr, James Lee

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Bedside teaching has been a tradtional practice and value in medicine. There is literature attesting the positive role of bedside teaching in medicine in general---and in emergency medicine in particular. The value proposition is centered around teaching overall clinical skills, communication skills and procedural skills. There is very little actual data concerning the outcomes of various bedside teaching approaches in EM. There are a number of very interesting suggestions In this review, we will discuss practical strategies to support bedside teaching in the speciality of emergency medicine.