Thursday, June 19, 2014

New Podcast: Health Information Exchanges

http://www.aaem.org/publications/podcasts/emergency-physician-advocates













Health Information Exchanges
In this Policy Prescriptions® edition of the podcast, Cedric Dark, MD MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Baylor College of Medicine, speaks with Dr. Ellana Stinson, a practicing emergency physician in Boston, MA, and Dr. Jason Shapiro, Associate Professor and Chief of the Division of Informatics in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. The discussion points include: a review of the article "Does Health Information Exchange Reduce Redundant Imaging?: Evidence from the ED," EMR versus HIEs, regional sizes and accessibility of HIEs.

Read Dr. Stinson's article on the Policy Prescriptions blog: "To scan or not to scan: Can health information exchanges help deter emergency departments from ordering unnecessary imaging tests?"


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Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Ultrasound Should be Integrated into Undergraduate Medical Education Curriculum

Photo Owned by Ashika Jain, MD
AAEM Clinical Practice Committee Statement
Ultrasound Should be Integrated into Undergraduate Medical Education Curriculum (5/30/2014)

 Visit the Clinical Practice Statement page on the AAEM website.

Chair: Steven Rosenbaum, MD FAAEM

Authors: Lisa D Mills, MD FAAEM
                Zachary Soucy, DO FAAEM

Reviewers: Ashley Bean, MD FAAEM
                   Jack Perkins, MD FAAEM

Reviewed and approved by the AAEM Board of Directors (5/30/2014).

Policy Statement:
It is the position of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine that ultrasound should be integrated into the core curriculum of undergraduate medical education.

Background:
Medical diagnostic ultrasound has been used by various specialties since the 1950s. Contemporary point of care ultrasound (POCUS) was first researched and utilized by emergency physicians in the mid 1980s. Emergency physicians have formally defined and pioneered POCUS over the past two decades. Research in a broad array of applications indicate improved patient care via procedural safety and success (11,13,17), improved diagnostic accuracy (20,21,22), decreased procedural pain (8), decrease time to critical interventions (11, 22), and decreased time to discharge (3). The practice of POCUS continues to grow. In the most recent decade there is an expanding role for POCUS across many specialties in medicine. As hospital wide ultrasound application has increased many healthcare institutions struggle to meet the growing educational needs of faculty and residents to obtain standardize ultrasound training. In addition, multiple specialties have POCUS fellowships and specialized POCUS training during other fellowships.