UAB Synopsis, Vol. 27, No. 9, March 10, 2008

UAB Senior Vice President and Dean of the School of Medicine Robert R. Rich, MD, has appointed Janyce M. Sanford, MD, as chair, Department of Emergency Medicine. She served as interim chair since September 2006.

“Dr. Sanford has provided wonderful leadership to the department in her interim role,” Dr. Rich says. “She has worked extremely well with the faculty and staff of the department and the hospital.”

Dr. Sanford, who leads a 30-member faculty, says, “We serve the medical staff as well as our patients and are committed to providing the best possible service to both. We also plan to continue our significant research and educational programs, as well as expand our clinical service lines.”

Clinical
Christopher J. Rosko, MD, is vice chair for clinical operations and medical director of the UAB Hospital Emergency Department (UED). “Dr. Rosko’s current focus is working with the hospital to address the challenges created for our department by an increasing influx of very ill patients into the UED while our hospital handles such a high occupancy,” Dr. Sanford says. “The result has been that more admitted patients stay longer in emergency beds.”

The department also staffs the UAB Highlands Emergency Department, directed by Kathleen P. Bowen, MD. “That emergency department has not been faced with the crowding problems we have in the UED and is well-equipped to handle lower acuity, urgent problems,” Dr. Sanford says.

David C. Pigott, MD, vice chair for academic development, is charged with exploring new curricula and evaluating continuing educational opportunities in emergency medicine for the department’s residents and faculty. Current efforts center on training staff physicians and expanding the use of ultrasound for targeted applications in the UED.

A UED-based Chest Pain Evaluation Center is nearing reality, she says. J. Jeremy Thomas, MD, and cardiologist Silvio E. Papapietro, MD, director of the Chest Pain Center, are collaborating to devise protocols aimed at standardizing and improving care for chest pain patients in that setting.

Education
In July the department will reformat its graduate medical education program to include an internship. “We will have 30 residents — a record for us — from a more competitive and larger pool of applicants than ever before,” she says. Andrew R. Edwards, MD, directs this program.

Emergency Medicine also offers a critical care fellowship, which is popular among emergency physicians who want to gain more training in the management of critical care patients because EDs have developed an increasing demand for these skills. Jason R. Begue, MD, directs the fellowship. “As they rotate through intensive care units, our fellows appreciate the collaboration they have with physicians from other services, including anesthesiology, pulmonary medicine, trauma and general surgery, and cardiology,” Dr. Sanford says. Michael Abatzis, MD, is the current fellow.

Emergency Medicine will offer an Advanced Wilderness Life Support course in the spring aimed at arming doctors, nurses, dentists, paramedics, and other health care professionals with the skills to manage emergency situations in areas without traditional medical support or facilities. “Dr. Beth Phillips, who is active in the Wilderness Medical Society, will direct this course, which has attracted phenomenal interest from our medical students and a wide range of other health care professionals,” she says.

Research
Faculty hold leadership roles in several funded projects. Todd B. Brown, MD, is director of the department’s Office of Research. Dr. Sanford says, “We are committed to keeping our research program strong and active.”

UAB is 1 of 11 North American centers collaborating in the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium, a NIH-supported effort aimed at improving prehospital resuscitation techniques for patients with either cardiac or trauma arrest. Dr. Brown is principal investigator on the cardiac arm of the trial, which will begin recruiting patients soon. The trauma arm, led by surgeon Jeffrey D. Kerby, MD, reached 25% of its recruitment goal in testing three intravenous solutions for their effectiveness in head injury and other major cases. A third study, led by Dr. Begue, will attempt to determine whether interventions that might halt the progress of severe sepsis could be initiated in the UED.

UAB’s Center for Emerging Infection and Emergency Preparedness (CEIEP), codirected by Ziad N. Kazzi, MD, includes several education and training projects. It is part of a Preparedness and Critical Events Response consortium led by Johns Hopkins University that conducts survey research projects looking at the resources and needs of nongovernmental networks that might be included in disaster planning. H. Russ Foushee, PhD, principal investigator, is director of the UAB Survey Research Unit.

In collaboration with the UAB School of Public Health’s South Central Center for Public Health Preparedness (SCCPHP), the center recently presented a symposium on community preparedness, surge capacity, preparedness education and training, risk communication, and other preparedness initiatives in Alabama, and at UAB.

Drs. Kazzi and Brown are collaborating with the Alabama Department of Public Health and UAB’s SCCPHP to offer training courses for emergency responders in the management of patients with blast injuries.The UAB centers soon will offer these courses in Mississippi as well.

CEIEP also offers intramural grants on preparedness

Leadership
Emergency Medicine physicians provide leadership for various hospital services:

Michael H. Catenacci, MD, is medical director of Critical Care Transport, which had its busiest year ever in 2007.

Dr. Begue is comedical director for the Medical Evaluation Team, which has greatly improved the hospital’s ability to care for emergencies in the inpatient setting.

Sarah Nafziger, MD, director of the Office of Emergency Medical Services (EMS), is active in training of young emergency medical technicians and paramedics. Dr. Nafziger also serves as medical director of EMT training at Jefferson State Community College and for a number of EMS services, including Trussville Fire and Rescue and Lifeguard Ambulance Service. She also cochairs UAB Hospital’s Emergency Management Committee.