Emergency physicians have the lowest rate of practice ownership among specialties, per the American Medical Association 2020 Physician Practice Benchmark Survey. Only 27.9 percent of emergency physicians reported having an ownership stake in their clinical practice. For nearly three-fourths of U.S. emergency physicians who are non-practice-owners, working conditions are determined through negotiations between employees…
Image: AI-assisted breast-cancer screening may reduce unnecessary testing (Photo courtesy of WUSTL) Radiologists typically detect one case of cancer for every 200 mammograms reviewed. However, these evaluations often result in false positives, leading to unnecessary patient recalls for additional testing, which not only causes patient anxiety but also consumes valuable medical resources. Now, a new…
Posterior circulation strokes make up 20 percent of all strokes but account for 40 percent of stroke misdiagnoses.1 Vertigo and dizziness are often the hallmarks, but distinguishing a central (brain) from a peripheral (vestibular) etiology is difficult. Dizziness is especially tricky, with up to 40 percent of strokes presenting with dizziness being missed.2 Vertebral artery…
An 18-year-old woman presented to the emergency department (ED) with symptoms of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. She reported that these symptoms started two days prior, shortly after consuming a fruit known as ackee. Since the onset of illness, she had been unable to tolerate any oral intake. Before arriving at our ED, the…
A few months ago, I received email notification at work that indicated our phones would soon be automatically downloading a generic, HIPAA-compliant artificial intelligence (AI) scribe. I was intrigued. Could an AI scribe really get all the complexities of an emergency department (ED) encounter? How would it know what to leave in—and sometimes more importantly—what…
“How bad could it be?” was the last thought before I took a small bite of the Carolina Reaper pepper I had grown in my (toxicology-required) garden. “Am I going to die?” was the next thought as I swigged milk to extinguish the blowtorch in my mouth, mopped sweat off my forehead, tried not to…
Susan E. Sedory, MA, CAE, will step down from her role as ACEP Chief Executive Officer effective June 2025. Ms. Sedory Recruited and hired in a completely virtual format, Ms. Sedory took the helm at ACEP as the COVID pandemic accelerated in July 2020 and deftly adapted ACEP staff and strategy to meet member needs…
Post-arrest patients with more significant reperfusion injury (for example, Pittsburgh Cardiac Arrest Category (PCAC) greater than or equal to 3, revised post-Cardiac Arrest Syndrome for Therapeutic hypothermia score (rCAST) greater than 6, evidence of shock, and/or longer arrest times) may benefit from mild hypothermia to 33 degrees Celsius, while less severe post-arrest patients may benefit…
A 39-year-old male presents to your emergency department (ED) with complaints of a headache after a roll-over motor vehicle accident. He was a restrained driver traveling 65 miles per hour on the highway when he lost control in the rain, hit a guardrail, and had a brief loss of consciousness. His only medical history is…
Another question to ask is why do we give nitrates at all to patients with acute myocardial infarction. There is no benefit to morbidity or mortality. —Andrew Schare, MD, FACEP Nitroglycerin will cause venodilation in every patient. If they are dependent on right ventricular filling for contraction as during myocardial ischemia/infarction, then you will expect…