Faculty from the Yale Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM) predominated the 2018 SAEM Annual Meeting held in Indianapolis, Indiana from May 15-18. Several DEM faculty were honored with awards at the largest national and international forum for the presentation of original education and research in academic emergency medicine (EM), and the department received the Academy of Women in Academic Emergency Medicine (AWAEM) Outstanding Department Award for its support of women in academic EM through organizational initiatives that address the recruitment, development and advancement of its women physicians. DEM founding chair, Gail D’Onofrio, MD, MS, opened the meeting with an impactful keynote address, “The Opioid Crisis: Emergency Physicians as Innovators, Policymakers, and Heroes.”
James Daley, MD, MPH, MS, (PGY4) was honored with the SAEM Best Resident Researcher Award, given to a senior EM resident who has demonstrated exceptional promise and early accomplishment in the creation of new knowledge for his research related to the diagnosis and prognosis of pulmonary embolism using tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE). In addition to her recent election as president of AWAEM, Pooja Agrawal, MD, MPD, received the 2018 Momentum Award from AWAEM in recognition of her extraordinary service to the organization and for her individual support and influence of the recruitment, promotion, retention and advancement of women in academic EM. Following the keynote address, Christine Ngaruiya, MD, MSc, DTM&H, was awarded the SAEM Global Emergency Medicine Academy (GEMA) Young Physician Award in honor of her commitment to the Academy, her leadership potential and for having served GEMA with distinction.
More than 20 DEM faculty participated in the conference, presenting innovative didactic sessions, oral presentations, E-posters and leading workshops. Topics included: Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity in Emergency Medicine Research, Education and Clinical Practice (Workshop featuring: Elizabeth Samuels, MD, MPH, Dowin Boatright, MD, MBA, and Pooja Agrawal, MD,MPH); Advances in Clinical Trial Designs—MOST (Multiphase Optimization Strategy Design) and SMART (Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial) (Didactic presented by Steven Bernstein, MD); Status of Sex and Gender in Emergency Medicine: A Five-Year Follow-Up (Oral presented by Basmah Safdar, MD), and Do Likes Attract? Patient Experience Through the Lens of Gender Concordance (Oral presented by Sharon Chekijian, MD). “We were especially excited that Dr. Federico Vaca was invited to participate in the second SAEM National Grand Rounds,” says Dr. D’Onofrio. “The goal of this special didactic session was to feature high quality, high impact work being produced by top investigators in emergency medicine.”
One of the most anticipated events at the conference, the SonoGames, was organized by Rachel Liu, MD, MBBCh. “The SonoGames is an exciting, educational and super fun ultrasound competition,” says Dr. Liu. “This year over 300 EM residents battled it out in front of hundreds of spectators to prove their mastery of point-of-care ultrasound skills”. To see highlights of this event and find out who the 2018 SonoChamp winners were, view this link on the Academy of Emergency Ultrasound website: http://www.saem.org/aeus/education/sonogames.
The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to the improvement of care of the acutely ill and injured patient by leading the advancement of academic emergency medicine through education and research, advocacy, and professional development. To learn more, visit saem.org.