Category Archives: Emergency Medicine

Emergency Medicine

Emergency physician jobs: Navigating tech’s impact on healthcare – Arizona Big Media

Step into the next future of healthcare transformation. A revolution that is reshaping emergency physician jobs and patient care.

Prepare to embark on a journey as we navigate the thrilling evolution. Uncovering the impacts of cutting-edge advancements.

Join us as we delve into this progressive landscape. Where healthcare tech revolutionizes the healthcare sector. It also redefines the scope and practice of emergency medicine. Brace yourself for an exploration of how innovation is shaping healthcare.

Lets dive in!

EHRs have transformed healthcare by replacing paper records. It can now be accessed with efficient and secure digital systems. It allows for quick access to medical information.

It will enable healthcare providers to make timely and accurate diagnoses. This further reduces errors and improves patient outcomes.

These apps have revolutionized emergency physician jobs. It offers advanced that include the following.

These apps empower individuals to enhance their health and well-being.

Telemedicine has sparked a radical transformation in the role of emergency healthcare. It uses video conferencing, remote monitoring, and secure messaging.

Doctors can now deliver consultations to patients from a distance. This improves access to healthcare services.

Telemedicine provides immediate support to paramedics. It also aids in triage operations during times of disaster. Websites like https://www.abstaffing.com/ offer the availability of travel nurses.

They also offer physician assistants and nurse practitioners to assist in emergencies. This tech influence expands the scope and reduces response times in critical situations.

Growth in diagnostic tools and imaging has improved emergency medicine. It provides real-time data at the bedside. These aid in quick diagnosis and decision-making, leading to better patient care.

These could include:

A technology impact is revolutionizing emergency medicine. It provides heart rate monitoring, fall detection, and even ECG capabilities. Devices like fitness trackers and smartwatches offer valuable data for emergency physicians.

This enables remote monitoring of high-risk individuals. This also gives valuable insights into patients health.

The future of healthcare lies in the USE of AI. This technology has already made significant strides in analyzing medical data. It also includes identifying patterns and predicting diagnoses.

In emergency medicine, AI is being utilized to assist in decision-making. This aids physicians in providing faster and more accurate care.

Growth in robotics has transformed emergency physician jobs. It helps aid in surgeries and provides remote support for patients.

Robots can also be utilized to transport medical supplies and perform tasks. This frees up physicians to focus on critical patient care.

VR technology is revolutionizing medical training and education for emergency physicians. Immersive simulations allow for hands-on learning. It also allows practicing high-risk procedures without putting patients at risk.

VR is also being used to manage pain and anxiety in patients. This further reduces the need for sedation and medication.

Groundbreaking advancements are transforming emergency physician jobs. This includes the likes of AI, telemedicine, and robotics. These innovations enhance diagnostics and patient engagement.

It also helps redefine the role of emergency physicians. The future of emergency medicine holds limitless potential driven by innovation.

Stay informed and explore the fascinating impact of technology on healthcare.

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Emergency physician jobs: Navigating tech's impact on healthcare - Arizona Big Media

Emergency Medicine

Emergency room doctor unveils the most dangerous toys this season – WTOP

Children's National Hospital emergency medicine physician and director of outreach Sarah Ash Combs shares what gifts parents should avoid this Christmas.

In less than 24 hours kids everywhere will begin tearing into toys from their wish list. But before that happens, one D.C.-area doctor suggested some ways to play it safe and avoid a Christmas trip to the emergency room.

Dr. Sarah Ash Combs, an emergency medicine physician and director of outreach for Childrens National Hospital, said there is an easy way for parents to make sure toys are safe. It begins with carefully checking the toys packaging and wrapping especially if you have children younger than three years old.

Is it wrapped in shrink-wrap packaging? she said. Is it something that a young child can get their hands on and ingest and use to cover their mouths? Bear in mind what the toy is coming in.

Combs also suggested keeping toys with tiny magnets, loose buttons or coin batteries away from children. If those parts are swallowed, they could be deadly for kids.

Look at a toy critically, Combs said. Ask yourself, If this went into my childs mouth, could be sucked down into the back of their throat? If you are saying yes, I would just put those toys to one side.

Another toy that strikes fear in the hearts of emergency room physicians, especially with New Years Eve on the horizon, is balloons.

If ingested, Combs said, balloons can cut off a childs airway and cause suffocation.

We really like to veer away from too many balloons lying around, especially in a young childs house, she said.

For larger kids, Combs advised parents to avoid gifting trampolines and rocket launchers this holiday.

The risk with trampolines is that children can land wrong on their heads or necks, or fall and break a bone. And toys that propel objects can cause severe close-range injuries, Combs told WTOP.

She said strict parental supervision is key.

Bear in mind, were talking about a minority of toys to stay away from, with the idea that this will give you a joyful holiday, she said. So that youre not coming to visit me in the emergency department.

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Emergency room doctor unveils the most dangerous toys this season - WTOP

Emergency Medicine

Security at hospitals’ emergency departments get $5.7 million funding boost over summer – RNZ

The government is spending an extra $5.7 million on security in emergency departments across the country for summer. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi

An emergency doctor says having more security guards over summer will make a difference to hospitals' waiting room safety.

The government is spending an extra $5.7 million on security in emergency departments across the country for summer, after an "increased frequency" of violent incidents at hospitals.

Auckland City Hospital will get five dedicated security guards for its emergency department, and emergency medicine specialist Dr Mark Friedericksen said it would make a difference.

"They're not a let's cause trouble presence, they're a calming presence to try and reduce people actually becoming aggressive, and aggressive to our staff. We value all our staff, all our patients and their whnau," he said.

"If you can de-escalate before there's any physical violence, you've won. Emergency departments survive on teamwork and our security officers are a big part of that teamwork."

Dr Friedericksen said the emergency department's waiting room was often an intense environment.

"One of our main pressures is within our waiting room area. It's not fit for purpose in 2023 and patients wait a long time and if you or I were sitting in the waiting room for a long time, you would be upset," he said.

"Physical assault luckily is rare, verbal assault happens on a daily basis."

Dr Mark Friedericksen said the five additional security guards for Auckland City Hospital would make a difference. Photo: Supplied

Te Whatu Ora said there were 1267 assaults at its hospitals between January and March this year alone - more than the total for 2021.

"The important thing to understand in [regard to] most of the patient or whnau violence interactions is they're vulnerable," Dr Friedericksen said.

"We see them at their most vulnerable when they're at their lowest, they're worried for their healthcare, under the influence of drugs, alcohol and they're just worried. There's a lot of verbal abuse, physical abuse, and we just don't condone that."

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said the increased security needed to continue beyond summer.

"A lot of our EDs are very busy and they're quite crowded so having more support for the clinical staff to get on and do the work that they are trained to do is a really welcome development," she said.

"By the time we get through summer then we'll be starting to hit the winter surge. EDs are the front doors of our hospitals they are never really not busy so it's important that workforce supports are made longer term."

Dr Shane Reti said the additional 200 security guard roles would be funded until late February. Photo: Supplied

Health Minister Dr Shane Reti said he was working on a longer-term plan to improve security in hospitals.

"We'll learn a lot from this period of time, have we got the numbers right for the eight high risk hospitals five FTE [full-time equivalent positions], is that the right number? It's my plan to bring up a proposal to have pervasive improved security across all of the emergency departments."

The extra 200 security guard roles would be funded till late February, he said.

"They'll have all of the training that an ED security guard might be expected to have," Reti said.

"They have all the tools that current security guards have, there's no new tools that we're giving them. They don't have the tools of police for example. In certain circumstances in a triaged way they do have the tools of restraint but a large part of the toolset is actually talking."

Reti said the rise in violence at hospital waiting rooms was concerning.

"The ED teams here and across the country are describing physical assaults on their person as well as verbal assaults and that is not acceptable and that is what we want to appropriately manage."

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Security at hospitals' emergency departments get $5.7 million funding boost over summer - RNZ

Emergency Medicine

Quebec emergency room doctors warn conditions out of control due to surge of COVID and other respiratory infections – WSWS

With the onset of winter, Quebecs emergency rooms are overflowing, endangering the health and lives of Quebecers. A major driver of the increased burden on hospitals is a surge in COVID-19 cases.

This is a repeat of the situation experienced in November and December 2022. According to the governments Index Sant website, the provinces overall emergency-room (ER) occupancy rate has exceeded 100 percent on every single day since Nov. 12. On Tuesday, the average rate across the province was 131 percent. In Laval, Quebecs third-largest city, it was 182 percent and in the nearby Lanaudire region, 171 per cent.

ER doctors wrote to Health Minister Christian Dub last Friday to warn that conditions in emergency rooms across the province are out of control. Overcrowding in the emergency department leads to daily mortality, says the letter, which was written by Dr. Marie-Maud Couture, the president of the Regroupement des Chefs dUrgence du Qubec (Association of Emergency Rooms Chiefs), and supported by the hundreds of doctors and residents who comprise the Association des spcialistes en mdecine durgence du Qubec(Quebec Association of Specialists in Emergency Medicine).

Congestion in emergency departments leads to mortality, recently estimated at one excess death for every 82 patients admitted, wrote Dr. Couture. This statistic does not take into account indirect deaths, i.e. people who present late despite having an urgent medical condition, for fear of waiting more than 24 hours in a waiting room, and sometimes even for fear of being a nuisance.

The immediate cause of the current overcrowding crisis is the triple epidemic of respiratory viruses that is hitting the province. As in 2022, influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are infecting Quebecers en masse.

According to the Institut national de sant publique du Qubec (INSPQ), some 130,000 Quebecers contract a respiratory virus every day.

COVID-19 is believed to be responsible for a third of these infections, although official figures (4,987 new cases for the week ending November 26) continue to seriously underestimate the number of cases. This is because they are based on PCR tests, which are accessible to only a small minority of people. These incomplete official figures and voluntary declarations of positive rapid tests have been steadily increasing since the end of September.

As of last week, 2,200 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, a number that exceeds what was seen in 2020 and 2021 before the arrival of the Omicron wave. This shows that the policy of mass infection adopted by the ruling class at the time has allowed the disease to take hold permanently, with a very high baseline.

COVID-19 also continues to kill. The 70 people who died between November 26 and December 2 in Quebec brought the official count of COVID deaths since 2020 to 19,084. At the end of November, Statistics Canada published its annual report on life expectancy in Canada. For the third year in a row, life expectancy in the country has fallen, from 82.3 years in 2019 to 81.3 in 2022.

The Statscan report also revealed that COVID-19 caused more deaths in the country last year than in any other year of the pandemic. With over 19,700 deaths attributable to it in 2022, COVID-19 is now the third leading cause of death in the country, responsible for around 6 percent of all deaths. In Quebec and Ontario, the two most populous provinces, mortality caused by COVID-19 increased by 38 percent in 2022 as compared to 2021.

The right-wing Coalition avenir Qubec (CAQ) government, with the complicity of the corporate-controlled media outlets and the federal Liberal government, is doing everything in its power to prevent the public from becoming aware of the immense dangers it faces. Its aim is to continue pursuing a deliberate policy of mass infection.

The COVID-19 health emergency was lifted in Quebec on June 1, 2022, and all measures, including the mandatory wearing of masks in healthcare centers, were eliminated. Even tracking the evolution of COVID-19 has become almost impossible due to the lack of data.

In the most recent example, on December 6 the INSPQ discreetly announced on its website that data on hospitalizations linked to COVID had also become imprecise with the end of the obligation for hospitals to record specific information. In particular, it will no longer be possible to know the number of COVID patients hospitalized in intensive care units.

Government and media propaganda downplaying the dangers associated with COVID has also led to a collapse in the number of Quebecers keeping their COVID vaccinations up to date. As of the middle of December, barely 900,000 people, or around 14 percent of the population, had received a booster dose designed to combat the Omicron XBB.1.5 sub-variant since the vaccination campaign began in October.

The data are just as alarming for the most vulnerable people, the only ones for whom the government and INSPQ officially recommend the vaccine. Vaccination rates are 39.1 percent for those over 60 and 45.8 percent for people aged 70-79. Of those 80 and over barely half, 50.5 percent, have received the latest booster.

Quebec Public Health Director Dr. Luc Boileau has warned of a cocktail of COVID-19 and flu for Christmas, even while downplaying the dangers. He is urging those over 70 to get vaccinated, and recommends that those with symptoms wash their hands and wear a mask. Quebec Premier Franois Legault appointed Boileau as the provinces interim public health director in Jan. 2022, as the government was moving to eliminate all mitigation measures amid the Omicron wave, and later made his posting permanent, precisely because of Boileaus readiness to implement the governments murderous profits-before-lives pandemic policy.

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According to Dr. Boileau, cases of influenzawhose main strain this year is H1N1, which is particularly dangerous for childrenare also rising sharply in Quebec. The test positivity rate has risen from 3.9 percent to almost 7.3 percent in the space of a week, and several adults with influenza are hospitalized in intensive care. Authorities fear that the situation will evolve in the same way as in Alberta, where the test positivity rate has risen from 3 percent to 33 percent in the space of a month.

The deeper causes of the ongoing crisis in emergency departments and, more generally, in the healthcare system, are also well known. They include the savage cuts made for decades by successive Parti Qubcois and Quebec Liberal Party governments, and the intensification of capitalist austerity by the CAQ, which announced in its March budget an increase in healthcare spending below inflation when non-recurring, COVID-19-related expenses are deducted.

Meanwhile, Dubs solutions to the ER crisis are collapsing miserably one after the other. At the end of November, the only two full-time nurses in the first Specialized Nurse Practitioner (SNP) clinic resigned, citing issues impacting the quality and safety of care, including a lack of equipment.

The clinic was opened with great fanfare at the suggestion of the crisis unit set up by Dub in December 2022, when emergency departments were in acute crisis. It was intended to relieve emergency departments and hospitals by treating less urgent cases.

Similarly, the Info-Sant line (811), where sick people are supposed to be able to talk to a professional and be directed to an alternative to ER care if their case is not too serious, is itself overwhelmed. People sometimes have to wait several hours to talk to someone.

In the first week of December, 42.3 percent of 811 callers hung up before getting any advice. Despite this, Dub reiterated on Tuesday that people should avoid the ER if at all possible, encouraging sick people to self-diagnose the severity of their illness and decide if they have the right to seek ER treatment.

The crisis in the healthcare system and the indifference of the ruling class are a serious threat to the lives of Quebecers. Recently, the media revealed that two people died in the emergency room of the Anna-Laberge hospital in Chteauguay, near Montreal, on November 29 and 30.

Although the authorities have refused to give details of these tragic incidents on the pretext that administrative investigations are underway, it appears that one person died after waiting 12 hours, although he was supposed to see a doctor within 30 minutes of arrival according to the preliminary examination carried out in triage. The stretcher occupancy rate at Anna-Laberge Hospital was 184 percent.

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Quebec emergency room doctors warn conditions out of control due to surge of COVID and other respiratory infections - WSWS

Emergency Medicine

Study pinpoints ideal locations for public bleeding control kits in shopping centers – News-Medical.Net

Where should bleeding control equipment be located to save as many lives as possible? Researchers at Linkping University in Sweden, in collaboration with US researchers, have found the answer to this through computer simulations of a bomb exploding in a shopping center. One of the most important conclusions: bleeding control kits should not be located at entrances.

In the event of an accident or an attack, members of the public can save lives by performing first aid measures until the arrival of emergency medical services. But it is not enough that people see themselves as life-saving immediate responders, prepared and able to act.

There must also be certain equipment available to manage major bleeding. The question then is where this equipment should be placed, so that people who want to help can quickly access bleeding control kits."

Carl-Oscar Jonson, adjunct senior associate professor at the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences at Linkping University and head of research at the Center for Disaster Medicine and Traumatology in Linkping

Until now, there have been no guidelines for where such bleeding control kits should be located to ensure maximal utility. The current study, published in the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, now contributes research-based recommendations.

"We found that the largest number of lives saved correlated with bleeding control kits being placed in two or more locations on the premises, but most importantly they shouldn't be placed at entrances. We also concluded that the equipment must be accessible within 90 seconds' walking distance," says Anna-Maria Grnbck, doctoral student at the Department of Science and Technology at Linkping University, who was involved in developing the simulation.

This means that bleeding control kits should not be placed at entrances, which is often the case with automated external defibrillators (AEDs). The reason for this is that they may be difficult to reach in a situation where many people have to be evacuated at once, such as in the case of attack or major accident. According to attack statistics, roughly 20 injured people will need first aid including a bleeding control kit each. It may be helpful to locate bleeding control kits in the same places as clearly marked AEDs, as long as not located at the entrances.

The recommendations are based on conclusions reached by the research team by developing a computer-based simulation of an explosion in a large shopping centre with thousands of simultaneous visitors. In their simulation, the researchers have looked at what happens right after an explosion. The majority of the simulated people try to get out of the premises and move towards the exits. Simulated people close to the blast suffer varying degrees of injury and start bleeding. In the simulation, some individuals help those injured by applying direct pressure to reduce bleeding, or by trying to find equipment. It is a race against time. Depending on how long it takes to get the equipment, the simulated injured people may die from blood loss.

To find the best strategy for the placement of bleeding control kits, the researchers tested four different scenarios in their simulation. They weighed together the outcomes of the many simulated courses of events for each scenario and compared them to understand which placement of equipment saved the largest number of lives.

The current study is a collaboration project between the Center for Disaster Medicine and Traumatology in Linkping, the Department of Computer and Information Science and the Department of Science and Technology at Linkping University and American experts affiliated with the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health. While the placement of bleeding control kits in sports arenas and similar has become increasingly common in the US, it is so far a rarity in Sweden.

"I hope policymakers and public venues can use this study to guide plans and decisions about where to locate public-access bleeding control supplies. For example, our study suggests that supplies co-located with AEDs would be more beneficial than those located near exits. In an emergency when minutes matter, having equipment readily accessible might mean the difference between life and death," says Craig Goolsby, Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, USA.

The project was funded by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate in the USA, and Linkping University. The Center for Disaster Medicine and Traumatology in Linkping is a national knowledge centre located at Region stergtland and Linkping University.

Some of the researchers behind the study have patents related to bleeding control kits.

Source:

Journal reference:

Steins, K., et al. (2023). Recommendations for Placement of Bleeding Control Kits in Public Spaces a Simulation Study. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2023.190.

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Study pinpoints ideal locations for public bleeding control kits in shopping centers - News-Medical.Net

Emergency Medicine

Lisa Lincoln, M.D., Awarded Unsung Hero by New York American College of Emergency Physicians – URMC

Lisa Lincoln, M.D., Attending Physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Highland Hospital and Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Emergency Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry has been named a New York State Emergency Medicine Unsung Hero. This designation is awarded to physicians for their work ethic, compassion, and collegiality.

A New York State Emergency Medicine Unsung Hero goes beyond simply being the embodiment of what it means to be an emergency physician. They are a stalwart of the Emergency Department, who is deeply committed to the mission of the emergency department, their colleagues, co-workers and patients.

Emergency Medicine encompasses planning, oversight and medical direction for community emergency medical response, medical control and disaster preparedness. Emergency physicians possess a unique body of knowledge including the initial evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, coordination of care among multiple providers and disposition of patients requiring expeditious medical, surgical or psychiatric care.

"It is no secret that the current clinical practice environment in Emergency Medicine can be challenging just about every Emergency Department has issues with boarding and resources, said Timothy Lum, M.D., FACEP, Chief of Emergency Medicine for Highland Hospital. It is these challenges that allow physicians like Dr. Lincoln to demonstrate just how exceptional they are. Dr. Lincoln is a role model within our department when it comes to patient care. She possesses integrity, truly cares about patients and is unwaveringly kind, compassionate and dedicated to the provision of excellent patient care. She does this all with an unparalleled humility."

Dr. Lincoln is a Rochester native. After attending SUNY Geneseo for her undergraduate degree, Dr. Lincoln received her medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 2009. She completed her Emergency Medicine residency training at the University of Rochester and was elected to be one of the Chief Residents by her peers and the Emergency Medicine faculty.

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Lisa Lincoln, M.D., Awarded Unsung Hero by New York American College of Emergency Physicians - URMC

Emergency Medicine

ER Physician Paul Mucciolo Files for Conklin’s School Board Seat, Citing Need for ‘Healthy Dose of Professionalism’ – FlaglerLive.com

Dr. Paul Mucciolo. ( FlaglerLive)

Last Updated: 6:44 p.m.

Emergency Medicine Physician Paul Mucciolo Files to Run for Conklins School Board Seat

Dr. Paul Mucciolo, an emergency-medicine physician at AdventHealth Palm Coast, picked up his two children from Indian Trails Middle School this afternoon, headed to the Supervisor of Elections office in Bunnell and declared his candidacy for the District 3 seat on the Flagler County School Board to bring back a healthy dose of professionalism to the board, he said, and to return the school district to an A-rated organization.

Mucciolo is running for the seat Colleen Conklin has held since 2000, as he did three years ago. Conklin has elected not to run again in 2024, as has Cheryl Massaro, though Massaro may not have entirely closed the door on another run.

Their departure will leave the board with the least combined elected-office experience it has had in memory, with three other board membersSally Hunt, Will Furry and Christy Chongeach having only two years on the board by then, assuming all three complete their first term.

The school districtstop administrative staff has also lost experienced hands and is led by first-year Superintendent LaShakia Moore, with additional administrative losses ahead. Moore expects to have a deputy superintendent by early next year. That would not necessarily be a problem in an organization moored to a functioning board. But that has not been the case, as a member of the public put it to the board this afternoon at the beginning of a workshop.

Ive been coming to these meetings a long time. But for the past year, which coincides probably with three new members of the board, what I dont seem to see or understand or perceive is that the board has spent any time in the last year thinking about kids, Mike Cocchiola told the board before enumerating the boards various firings and going after anything with a rainbow on it, for your own personal convictions. It seems to me that youre spending more time and more taxpayer money attacking cultural issues, and not once that I hear, especially the new members, say lets do something for the kids.

Mucciolo hadnt heard the commentit was delivered around the same time that the doctor was leaving the supervisors office, three floors up from where he wasbut seemed to echo it. Im trying to get Flagler schools and mainly the school board back on track to try to get the students and parents first, then the staff, then the support staff, and then the the board actually last, he said. The board should be there to serve, to serve the students and to give them the best possible education that they can get.

He does not want the operations of the school board to control so much of the agenda, as it has for the past few years, often at the detriment of other priorities. Flagler should be back to an A school [district], it should never lost the designation, he said. We have to look at why its not an A school and make sure that we dedicate the resources to bring whatever area needs attention up to par in order to earn that designation. He added: I would like there to be more of a business like attitude, a healthy dose of professionalism, and what I would like to really see happen is to open the doors more to our community. That is what is going to benefit our children, benefit our businesses, benefit our district in generalby having a closer relationship with the educational opportunities and businesses in the community.

Mucciolo carries a heavy workload. He practices emergency medicine full time, serves as the medical director at AdventHealth Palm Coast and AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway (both the north and south campuses of the hospital), and at the International Speedway, where AdventHealth is the exclusive healthcare provider. My demands are many but the flexibility in my scheduling affords me the ability to attend meetings, to take phone calls, to meet with people. So, while I do have a heavy load, I can adjust it in order to accommodate additional demands, Mucciolo said.

He and his wife Christy moved to Palm Coast in 2008. He was in emergency medicine with Halifax Health before switching to AdventHealth in 2015. Why emergency medicine? The variety of the job. I get to see it all, he said. And its a privilege to be able to care for people who are at their worst. Its their worst moment, and its an honor to help people put their trust in you to try to help them. The current school board may not be such a leap from the emergency room.

He is now one of two candidates for the District 3 seat. Nicole Durenberger, a relatively new arrival in Flagler County, initially filed for a Palm Coast City Council seat, withdrew, then filed for School Board. (Like County Commission candidates, School Board candidates are elected according to districts. The candidates must live in the district they represent. But voters from across the county cast ballots for candidates regardless of district. The races are ostensibly non-partisan, but in todays ideologically polarized campaigns, most voters pay attention to a candidates registration and the local political parties overtly politicize non-partisan races.)

Mucciolo has been following the school board since before his first campaign. He ran against Conklin three years ago. Conklin won in a three-way race (she took 52 percent of the vote to Mucciolos 35, with a third candidate taking the balance of the votes) Mucciolo, a Republican, and Conklin, a Democrat, then essentially became colleagues as Mucciolo appeared on a virtual town hall Conklin organized during the Covid pandemic to counter the effects of unscientific information and tamp down some o the hysteria surrounding recommended safety measures at the time, in school and elsewhere.

Paul and I had an opportunity to work together during Covid, Conklin said this evening, after a boar workshop. I relied on his expertise and it was clear to me that he was greatly focused on the success of all students. I believe hes disassociated himself from those who thought they may have been able to influence him. He is very much his own man.

I cant fill her seat, Mucciolo said of Conklin. With that depth and length of experience and the breadth of experience, Im coming in new. It has some disadvantages because I have to uncover a lot of things and look behind the doors that we dont see now, because Im not active on the board. But it has an advantage of bringing some fresh perspectives. And the thing to do is to carry on the good work. She has worked tirelessly for the students and the teachers. And what Ive noticed from her is that shes very open to listening. And I think thats where its most importantthat we listen to our students. We listen to the teachers, and we listened to the community, and I would like to carry forth that quality more than anything, and the dedication to making sure that everyones needs are met when there are difficult times like Covid or an economic downturn.

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ER Physician Paul Mucciolo Files for Conklin's School Board Seat, Citing Need for 'Healthy Dose of Professionalism' - FlaglerLive.com

Emergency Medicine

Are First-Year Emergency Medicine Residents Still Behind on Level 1 Care-Based Milestones? – Cureus

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Are First-Year Emergency Medicine Residents Still Behind on Level 1 Care-Based Milestones? - Cureus

Emergency Medicine

UAB researchers awarded $1 million to study ways to reduce emergency department overcrowding – University of Alabama at Birmingham

The research teams goal is to create a customizable solution that can be applied across various health care settings to reduce overcrowding in emergency departments.

Abdulaziz Ahmed, Ph.D. and Bunyamin Ozaydin, Ph.D.A group of University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have been awarded $1 million to develop and implement solutions to reduce emergency department overcrowding.

This is definitely a significant topic and an important societal problem, said Abdulaziz Ahmed, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB School of Health Professions and associate scientist in the Center for Clinical and Translational Science. We are all excited to be tackling something that can be so impactful for so many people.

The research will use artificial intelligence, machine learning and health information technology to analyze the full capacity protocol in managing patient flow in the ED and beyond. The FCP consists of multiple levels, each triggered by specific criteria. When a level is activated, various interventions can be implemented to address ED crowding.

Currently, most hospitals adopt a reactive approach, waiting until the ED is crowded before deploying resources to mitigate the issue. In contrast, this project aims to leverage AI and machine learning to transform the FCP into a proactive protocol that anticipates crowding using different AI models.

This is a problem facing every health system around the world. There is not one universal protocol, Ahmed said. Plus, not every hospital even has an FCP.

Bunyamin Ozaydin, Ph.D., who has extensive system development experience in the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine Department of Anesthesiology, emphasizes that ED overcrowding is not solely an ED problem but rather a hospital wide issue affecting patient flow.

After leaving the operating room, surgical patients go into post-op or ICU, then some go to inpatient units, and those are the same destinations for admitted ER patients, Ozaydin said. That is why were looking at this more holistically and looking at more of the overall hospital patient flow.

Shortly after joining the HSA department, Ahmed gave a presentation at the CCTS, where he discussed the research he conducted, predicting ED admission disposition at the time of triage. His work was to be a possible solution to reduce boarding time and consequently reduce overcrowding.

Ahmed connected with James Booth, M.D., associate vice chairman of the UAB Department of Emergency Medicine and interim chief medical information officer of the UAB Health System, about the impracticality of focusing solely on anticipating patient outcomes without considering the use or lack of use of an FCP. After extensive discussion, they agreed to collaborate and proposed shifting from reactive strategies to proactive solutions.

In the simplest terms, we decided to use AI and machine learning to leverage reactive FCP and make it proactive, Ahmed said. We plan to use a deep learning model to predict different patient flow measures across the hospital and then package all these models to feed data automatically into a decision support system, which is a dashboard that can be integrated with the set of tools the patient flow management team utilizes.

The team will focus on the conceptualization and development of the process and procedures in the first two years of the grant. During this time, the UAB team will study the effectiveness and feasibility of proactive FCP that is supported by AI.

The models are the engine of the car, but an engine alone doesnt get you there you have to build a car that is actually drivable, said Ozaydin, who holds a masters degree in electrical engineering and a doctoral degree in computer engineering. For that, we need a substantial system with input interfaces, output interfaces, user requirements, user interfaces and more built around the models.

The proactive FCP simulation will compare the system prediction model outcomes with the reactive outcomes to evaluate the effectiveness of the proactive FCP before its full implementation. Once the models reach a certain maturity level, they will be launched live.

During the last three years of the study, they will focus on establishing a proof-of-principle by implementing their models at three hospitals. The selection of multiple sites will enable them to generalize the system as much as possible and to study configuration settings specific to a particular organization.

We will do the customization for the first site, and then we will do it at the other sites so we can understand what parameters need to be generalized, which will help us better understand how our solution can be implemented at any given hospital, Ozaydin said. There are many very complex processes in health care that could be improved. Our project further signifies the importance of AI in positively impacting everyones lives and how it can be used to tackle many problems across health care.

Their preparation for this work has already begun, and they are excited for the future. Although it will take time to see and then implement results, they firmly believe this is a strong step forward. They see their work as having the potential to help many patients soon. Even more importantly, they hope it can provide much needed insight to practitioners and other researchers for many years to come.

Ahmed, contact principal investigator; Ozaydin, multi-principal investigator; and Eta S. Berner, Ed.D., co-investigator; in the UAB Department of Health Administration, along with Booth, co-investigator in the Department of Emergency Medicine, are the investigators of a five-year grant awarded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Read more:

UAB researchers awarded $1 million to study ways to reduce emergency department overcrowding - University of Alabama at Birmingham