Dr. Susan Promes was invited by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine to be one of their plenary speakers at their 28th Annual Scientific Meeting in Sydney Australia at the end of November. The theme for this year's conference is "Educating for our Future." Dr. Promes will share her medical education expertise with our emergency medicine colleagues down under.

Dr. Jeffrey Tabas and Dr. Susan Promes are new members of the UCSF Medical Education Leadership Group chaired by the new Vice Dean of Education, Catherine Lucey.

Dr. Jeffrey Tabas has joined the UCSF Clinical Performance Improvement Committee.

Dr. Jeffrey Tabas will be speaking at the UCSF Topics in Emergency Medicine course on November 7 in San Francisco. His topics are Pulmonary Embolism and Low Risk Chest Pain.

Dr. Jeffrey Tabas will be speaking at the USC Essentials of Emergency Medicine conference in San Francisco on November 9.  His topics are Critical Care SmackDown and The Critical ECG.

Dr. Renee Hsia is an invited speaker on a panel on disparities in trauma care for the American Heart Association Resuscitation Science Symposium on November 12 in Orlando, Florida.

Dr. Renee Hsia will be presenting at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Physician Faculty Scholars National Meeting in San Diego on November 30.

Dr. Prasanthi Govindarajan will be speaking at the National Association of EMS Physicians® (NAEMSP®) Annual Meeting: Specialty Workshops, Scientific Assembly and Trade Show, to be held January 12-14, 2012 at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort in Tucson, Arizona on Comparative Effectiveness Research: Opportunities for the EMS Community.

Dr. Prasanthi Govindarajan's work on Probabilistic Matching of Computerized Emergency Medical Services (EMS) records and Emergency Department and Patient Discharge Data: a Novel Approach to Evaluation of Prehospital Stroke Care,  has been accepted for presentation at the International Stroke Conference to be held in February 2012 in New Orleans, LA.   

The Chronic Illness Demonstration Project directed by Dr. Maria Raven in NYC was featured in Modern Healthcare magazine, Oct 10, 2011. It states:  "One small prior pilot at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York paired patients identified by algorithm with case managers and a housing agency and saw hospital visits drop by one-third within one year. New York Medicaid saved $5,080 per patient after deducting expenses for the small-scale pilot-and after outpatient Medicaid costs increased an average of $474 per patient, according to Dr. Maria Raven, an emergency room physician who oversaw the pilot. Raven, now an assistant professor at the University of California at San Francisco, continues as director of the algorithm pilot for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., which includes Bellevue. She says HHC will continue to use the algorithm as New York adopts medical homes under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  The algorithm will help identify which medical home patients could benefit from intensive case management, she says."  To request the full article, click here to send an email to the editor.

Raven, Maria C. "High-risk patients in a complex health system: coordinating and managing care," chapter 21 in Comprehensive Care Coordination for Chronically Ill Adults, ed. Schraeder, Shelton (Wiley-Blackwell: Malden, MA, 2011).

Thompson DO, Hurtado TR, Liao MM, Byyny RL, Gravitz C, Haukoos JS. Validation of the Simplified Motor Score in the Out-of-Hospital Setting for the Prediction of Outcomes After Traumatic Brain Injury. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 2011; Nov: 417-425.

Thompson DO, Prendergast MA, Shockley LW. Traumatic Pneumothorax with Air Mimicking Lung Markings. Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2011 Oct 5. [Epub ahead of print]

Deborah Korenstein MD, Raphael Falk MD, MPH, Elizabeth A. Howell MD, MPP, Tara Bishop MD, MPH, Salomeh Keyhani MD, MPH. "Overuse of health care services in the United States: an understudied problem." Archives of Internal Medicine. In press. Note: The appendix of this paper is going to be used as the official literature review for a Joint Commission national meeting on overuse this spring. The authors have been asked to be part of the committee that selects overuse priorities for the meeting.    

Salomeh Keyhani MD, MPH, Raphael Falk MD, MPH, Tara Bishop MD, MPH, Elizabeth A. Howell MD, MPP, Deborah Korenstein MD. "The Relationship between Geographic Variations and Overuse of Health Care Services: A Systematic Review." Medical Care. In press.

"More Americans Face Longers Trips to ER," US News and World Report, featuring Dr. Renee Hsia.   

Associated Press article, "Study: 69M must travel longer to a trauma center," featuring Dr. Renee Hsia in Forbes.com. 

"Lack of Trauma Centers Means Less Nearby Help and More Travel for Minorities, Uninsured: Study," International Business Times, quoting  

Dr. Renee Hsia.      

Dr. Jeff Tabas is co-editor of PEER 8 (Physician's Evaluation and Educational Review in Emergency Medicine Volume 8), ACEP Publishing. (Dr. David Duong and Dr. Esther Chen are contributors).

Dr. David Duong contributed as a question writer in PEER VII.