Department News - Penn Medicine

Read the latest news from the Department of Emergency Medicine.

Health Care Safety

In an opinion essay for The Philadelphia Inquirer, K. Jane Muir of the School of Nursing and Anish K. Agarwal, MD of the Perelman School of Medicine, both also with the Leonard Davis Institute, call for an end to violence against ER nurses and doctors. They write that two federal bills introduced in Congress would establish zero-tolerance policies and standards for addressing violence in the workplace, as well as enforce penalties for assaults on health care workers.

Thinking Ahead

The Hospital Emergency Response Team at Penn Medicine must be ready to respond to any catastrophe in real time, so the team conducts disaster simulations and drills, monitors threats, develops procedures, and plans responses. “It’s our duty to provide the best possible care to the Philadelphia community, even on the worst day imaginable. This is what we train for,” Jonathan Bar, MD says.

"Tranq" Wounds

Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer with no FDA-approved use in humans, is now pervasive in Philadelphia’s street fentanyl supply, leading to deep tissue wounds among drug users. Writing in The Conversation, Rachel McFadden, an ER nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a wound care clinic in Kensington, discusses treating these wounds and the stigma that prevents people from seeking care.

Equitable Care

The Parity Center, an interdisciplinary team based in the Perelman School of Medicine, launched last year with a focus on health equity through payment reform. “We seek to investigate—and expose—the root causes of how payment policies create structural barriers to achieving health equity,” Austin S. Kilaru, MD says in a Q&A with the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics.

Telehealth for Opioids

In an opinion essay for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jeanmarie Perrone, MD of the Perelman School of Medicine and Leonard Davis Institute writes that peer-led telehealth models can increase access to care and speed up treatment for people with opioid use disorder. “We need better—and more strategic—funding at scale from Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurers that grows the peer workforce and supports time-based reimbursement for the holistic care these patients need,” she says.

Eighteen Little Things to Cool You Down on a Hot Vacation

"I think of it like a barbecue," says Jonathan Bar, MD of the Perelman School of Medicine. "It's time and temperature. You don't want to barbecue yourself."

Cash for Safety

To make someone put the phone down while driving, show them the money. When a group of auto insurance customers were tempted with a cash incentive- and regular feedback letting the driver know how they were doing compared to other drivers trying to reduce their phone time- handheld phone use dropped significantly, according to research by M. Kit Delgado, MD of the Perelman School of Medicine.

Front Door

Anish Agarwal, MD and Eugenia South, MD of the Perelman School of Medicine have published research in JAMA Health Forum detailing interviews conducted in 2021-2022 with 25 Black patients who had visited an urban hospital's emergency department. "The connections between hospitals and communities are important to engender trust and reinforce public health. It's a critical link between hospitals and people", Agarwal said.

Crash Course

A two-week elective taught by Danica Zold, MD and Jonathan Levi Bar, MD of the Perelman School of Medicine trains med students to practice wilderness and disaster medicine without the tools and staffing of a fully equipped medical center. As reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer, students use simulated injuries to learn how to respond to bear attacks, dirty bombs, avalanches, and unknown contaminations.

Physician Diversity

In 2012, Iris Reyes, MD of the Perelman School of Medicine founded the Alliance of Minority Physicians, which has driven a three-fold increase in the number of minority physicians training at Penn and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Now, Dr. Reyes is working on expanding AMP and serving historically underrepresented students and professionals across the region.

Opioid Use

A study lead by Anish Agarwal, MD and Kit Delgado, MD of the Perelman School of Medicine and Department of Emergency Medicine found that patient pain scores were a good predictor for opioid use, and that patients who are younger or who haven't taken opioid pain medication before are more likely to not need opioids after many common surgeries.

Battling A New Front In the War on the Opioid Epidemic

"While it might not cause as many as many fatalities, we're still really worried about the xylazine presence in the drug supply", says Jeanmarie Perrone, MD, the Director of the Division of Medical Toxicology.

Difference Makers

Emergency Medicine physician Iris Reyes, MD was among the honorees for the Philadelphia Tribune's Women of Achievement Award for 2023, which recognized women leaders and trailblazers who are making a difference in both their organizations and communities. Dr. Reyes is the founder of the Alliance of Minority Physicians (AMP) at UPHS-CHOP, which provides a supportive community for residents and fellows from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in medicine.

Hyperbaric Division Hosts Young Scientists

The Penn Medicine Division of Hyperbarics and Undersea Medicine hosted a group of students from Episcopal Academy's Annenberg Science Symposium Club. The students received a guided tour from David Lambert, MD and Kevin Hardy, MD of the Penn Medicine Emergency Department.

Automated External Defibrillator Use at Home

The New York Times reports that the use of A.E.D's at home has been spreading. The Penn Medicine Center for Resuscitation Science is actively involved in a number of projects to implement A.E.D use for non-medical professionals. Think of an A.E.D. like a fire extinguisher, says Dr. Benjamin Abella of the Center for Resuscitation Science. You might never use it, but having one might some day save a life.

Feedback Disparity

A study by Mira Mamtani of the Perelman School of Medicine and colleagues finds that the gender of emergency medicine residents plays a role in the content and quality of the feedback they receive from physicians. "Among women residents, it is their perceived lack of confidence in procedures, and not the outcome of the procedure, that is leading to poorer ratings," Mamtani says.

Earthquake Response

Jonathan Bar of the Perelman School of Medicine offers guidance on how to help in the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, including what resources are available on campus.

Covid Misinformation

During the pandemic, social media's immediacy and the pace of information allowed false claims to arise and persist, says Anish Agarwal of the Perelman School of Medicine. In a Q&A, Agarwal discusses why this likely happened and how he and Sharath Chandra Guntuku of the School of Engineering and Applied Science hope to tackle the subject through their NIH-funded research.

Patient-reported Racism and Emergency Care

A new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine and Leonard Davis Institute used text message-based surveys to evaluate patient emergency department experiences, particularly the impact of race. "Black patients reported more race-related negative effects in emergency care than white patients," Anish Agarwal says.

CPR and Defibrillators: What you Need to Know

"CPR is not very efficient in moving blood", says Benjamin Abella of the Perelman School of Medicine. "The heart is a better pump, so to make up for that you go faster. You can't hurt someone, they're already dead".

CPR Education

Damar Hamlin's collapse highlights the importance of bystanders learning CPR. "All of us need to learn CPR", Benjamin Abella told ABC News.

Safer Neighborhoods

Installing working windows and doors, cleaning trash, and weeding at abandoned houses can lead to less gun violence in Black neighborhoods, according to findings from the Perelman School of Medicine's Eugenia South and John MacDonald of the School of Arts & Sciences, and colleagues. Their research adds to a growing body of work by this team, which has previously shown that greening vacant lots and making structural repairs to occupied homes in low-income neighborhoods improves health and safety.

The Doc Saving Us From Ourselves

Penn Physician-Scientist Kit Delgado applies what he learns from treating injured patients in the ER to changing the behavior that gets us there in the first place.

Health and Wealth

Eugenia South of the Perelman School of Medicine and colleagues argue that health systems are uniquely positioned to close the racial wealth gap. "Large, sustained, societal investments are the only way to address the gap, and health systems have a moral obligation to join the movement," says South.

Ultrasound Education

An integrated four-year ultrasound curriculum helps Perelman School of Medicine students build competence and confidence in the classroom and clinic. "There's a difference between seeing something in a book and seeing it in a dynamic, living person," says Nova Panebianco of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Urban Heat Islands

An article in USA Today addresses the phenomenon of urban heat islands, in which parts of a city can feel up to 20 degrees hotter than other areas. The effect is more often experienced in lower-income communities. Chidinma Nwakanma of the Perelman School of Medicine warns of the danger of heat exhaustion. “You might not realize you’re overheating until you start having symptoms,” says Nwakanma.

Greening for Equity

Founded on research led by Eugenia South of the Perelman School of Medicine, Deeply Rooted, a program designed by the Penn Urban Health Lab in partnership with more than 13 community and faith-based organizations plans to plant greenery in more than a million square feet of vacant lots in West and Southwest Philadelphia. The program seeks to reduce violent crime, enhance public health, and reverse health inequities.

Preventable Deaths

As we move further into the warm months, Zaffer Qasim of the Perelman School of Medicine discusses the treatment drowning victims receive from first responders and emergency medicine staff. Among other recommendations, Qasim encourages everyone to get training in basic life support. "The skills you learn may just save a life," he says.

Gun Violence

In an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Zaffer Qasim and Chidinma Nwakanma of Penn Presbyterian Medical Center write that "gun laws save lives only if they are passed. As trauma clinicians on the front line, we don't want to keep returning to the family room to tell another mother that their child is dead."

Curbing Addiction

Speaking about medications that can treat opioid addiction, Jeanmarie Perrone of the Perelman School of Medicine says, “The primary care offices that initiate [the medication] Sublocade have to order it a week in advance, and assign it to a single patient. If a patient misses that appointment, it’s potentially going to waste. You can’t just give it to the next person who shows up and wants it.”

Digital Health Privacy

A collaboration between the Perelman School of Medicine's Ari Friedman and Matthew McCoy and colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University aims to understand what browsing history could inadvertently reveal about a person's health. The work shows possible implications for ad targeting, credit scores, insurance coverage and more.

Structural Factors

Black psychiatric patients in emergency departments across the country are 63% more likely to be chemically sedated than their white counterparts, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine. Furthermore, white psychiatric patients were more likely to be sedated at hospitals that predominately serve Black patients than at hospitals with mostly white patients. Hospitals with insufficient staffing and fewer resources often turn to chemical sedation when dealing with distressed patients, says Ari Friedman.

Communicating Risk

According to the Leonard Davis Institute, emergency department patients were more likely to recall their risk for future opioid misuse and report greater satisfaction with their pain treatment when they saw a risk thermometer and watched narrative-based intervention stories than those who saw only the risk calculator. Zachary Meisel, of the Perelman School of Medicine says, "the combination of numerical risk and narrative data may have the power to communicate a variety of tradeoffs."