Emergency Medicine

Department

Newsletter 2013-2014

Department of Emergency Medicine Update

– but that could have just been because Brownson was on the dance floor. This past year, many of our faculty and residents have seized opportunities to develop and grow along with our program. As many of you know by now, Dr. Mary Westergaard has taken over after Dr. Janis Tupesis as our Residency Program Director, freeing up Dr. Tupesis to pur-sue academic development and global health efforts on behalf of the department. Dr. Brian Sharp has expanded his administrative portfolio to include residency program leadership, in addition to medical director of The Amer-

ican Center. Dr. Andy Lee has taken a lead role on administra-tive matters ranging from FCA to patient experience. Dr. Jamie Hess has jumped in and grabbed the reins of our medical student programs as clerkship director. Dr. Vanessa Tamas has joined Drs. Michael Lohmeier & Michael Mancera in a more formal leadership role in prehospital care. Dr. Karen Serrano has transitioned to join our faculty in order to expand all her efforts on behalf of our edu-cational programs. Both Dr. Josh Ross and Dr. Sara Damewood are well poised to accept first fellows in medical simulation and point

What a great honor to be able to write our first Depart-ment of Emergency Medicine update! It has been an incredibly intense year, as we continue our evolution from a small program to a more enriched and robust program, having secured no less than three national awards this past year! It was wonderful to be able to close the year with an amazing DEM Celebration, with guests ranging from our CEO and our Dean to police and fire chiefs to hospitalists and surgeons to many front line staff from the ED and other services. Some have dubbed the event ‘Madison’s party of the year!’

of care ultrasound, respectively. Meanwhile, Drs. Ryan Wubben, Louis Scrattish, & Mike Aber-nethy are welcoming their third Medflight fellow, while applying for formal accreditation of our UW Medflight program. Dr. Mike Repplinger is ready to start as our first Assistant Professor on the tenure track, and Dr. Mike Pulia secured a $50,000 research grant. Drs. Jeff Pothof & Josh Ross, along with Drs. Andy Lee, Jim Svenson, Allan Mottram, & Ryan Wubben, deserve special mention for drafting our depart-ment’s many new policies & pro-cedures. While they are focusing on all policies small and big, Drs. Michael Kim & Dr. Janis Tupesis are finalizing our aca-demic promotion process. Dr. Michael Kim is spearheading our newly minted, not yet active, Tenure & Promotions Commit-tee. Our graduating seniors are taking next steps in profession-al development with five of the eight pursuing fellowships in critical care, preventive health, medical simulation, & toxicology. Two current residents, Drs Holly Caretta-Weyer & Sam Zidovetski were both accepted to the Har-vard Macy Program for Postgrad-uate Trainees: Future

Academic Clinician Educators. Many residents have served as leaders in various capacities through our Global Health pro-gram, including Dr. Matt Ander-son’s successful advocacy to secure educational resources for trainees in Africa. Residents also earned positive attention with receiving several UWHC QI awards this year at the Resident Improvement Symposium in April. Drs. Ryan Thompson and Mark Brownson teamed up to win “Best Poster” for UWHC Quality and Safety. Addi-tionally, Dr. Haleh Van Vliet was chosen to attend the AAPHM Pal-liative Conference. Also congratu-lations to Dr. Van Vliet along with Drs. Meredith Masters and Scott Fruhan for securing three seats on WACEP Board. Last, but not least, Dr. Morgan Wilbanks was made President of the UWHC Housestaff Association and Dr. Masters was selected to sit on AAEM Education Committee. Very, very impressive residents! As we focus on growing our academic programs, our clinical activity continues to grow, out-pacing all other local Emergency Departments. This growth has led to cramped conditions. Thanks to the generosity of Dr. Jim Berbee & Karen Walsh we are in the process of planning for a significant ED

expansion. Next year this time, we’ll have moved into new admin-istrative office space and will be poised to launch a new emergency department. Given all the growth, we are looking for a few good men (and women) to join our team. Next to the residents, alumni are the most important part of our program. We hope all of you are similarly proud of all that has hap-pened this past year. Please keep in touch and let us know all the good work you are doing (continue reading to hear a few updates from our alumni).

Azita Hamedani, MD, MPHDepartment ChairAssociate Professor, Emergency Medicine

Janis, Tupesis, MDAssociate Professor, Emergency MedicineDirector of Academic DevelopmentDirector of Global Health Programs, EM

It is hard to believe that it is time to profile our residency program again in the Emergency Medicine newsletter! Two words come to mind to describe the last academic year … growth and progress. We have welcomed in our first class of 12 residents, expanded our clinical program to include the William S. Middle-ton Veterans Memorial Hospital Emergency Department and made academic inroads on many fronts. This is truly a landmark moment and will make us one of the largest and most diverse residency programs at UW Health and in the State of Wisconsin.

Growth. With the intern class, we started 2013 with 28 residents in our program. It is a far cry from our early days when we could fit the entire residency in one minivan! With residents sitting

on each other’s laps in the resi-dency lounge, we have outgrown our current administrative space and look forward to our impend-ing move to the UBOB Building. The residents list of demands has finally been met – more comput-ers, flat screen TVs, dining area, fridge! By this time next year, we should be reporting from our new digs. The 2013-2014 residency re-cruiting season was an incredibly successful one! We continue to recruit a large volume of highly qualified applicants; this year we had approximately 800 applicants for 12 residency spots. A special thanks to Drs. Sam Zidovetzki and Morgan Wilbanks for orga-nizing this year’s pre-interview dinners. Feedback from the ap-plicants was that it was one of the most pleasant gatherings of the entire interview season for them. Thank you to everyone who host-ed applicants in their home and for your continued excellent turn out at the preinterview dinners. Please go to the UW Residency website to find out more about these wonderful additions to our program (http://www.emed.wisc.edu/residents). Listed here are the 2014 Interns:

Daniel Berhanu, Northwestern University The Feinberg School of MedicineClark Brewer, Medical College of WisconsinChristopher Ford, Medical College of WisconsinKristen French, University of

Colorado School of MedicineBrian Jennett, University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of MedicineMichele Luhm Vigor, Vanderbilt University School of MedicineThomas Miller, University of Pittsburgh School of MedicineBrooke Moungey, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public HealthShashank Ravi, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public HealthNikolai Schnittke, Tufts Univer-sity School of Medicine Nicholas Wilkie, University of Vermont College of MedicinePatrick Yegian, University of Massachusetts Medical School

Progress. The last academic year has been one of significant in-novation, accomplishment and programmatic development. Under the leadership of Dr. Allan Mottram, we have seamlessly integrated our PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents at the WMS VA Emer-gency Department. It has been a wonderful training environment - giving the residents the ability to practice in a different adminis-trative environment, see a unique and diverse patient population and take on a valuable senior resident leadership role. We have expanded paired coverage in the UW Emergency Department to keep pace with our ever-ex-panding clinical volume. Senior residents will have more active roles in supervision and oversight of medical students and junior

Residency Update

Will Sanderson, MDPGY2

residents along with increased opportunities for educational and administrative leadership. With the help of Drs. Josh Ross, Mary Westergaard, Brian Sharp and Louis Scrattish – our clinical simulation program continues to grow. Our PGY-1 class did a re-markable job at the SAEM’s “Sim Wars” – losing by only a few votes to the eventual national champion, made up entirely of senior residents. Whispers were heard from the judges … “I can’t believe that those guys are only interns!” Drs. Sara Damewood, Jamie Hess, Chris Vaughn and Dana Resop continue to build

a powerhouse Ultrasound Pro-gram. With the improved con-tent and structure of the clinical rotation, the increased faculty involvement and the ability to save/review all scans on QPath –

the future of ultrasound at UW is incredibly bright. The Emergen-cy Medicine Program continues to be a leader in Global Health at UW (article later in this edition). This academic year, five residents continued our involvement at Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, JFK Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia and Komfo Anyoke Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana. Under the direction of Drs. Nestor Rodriguez and Jamie Hess, the didactic curric-ulum continues to flourish. This year we have added peer led read-ing groups, online boards review curriculum using Rosh Review, a

longitudinal research curriculum, resident led “ultrasound case of the month” – to name a few! We continue to attract national lead-ers in Emergency Medicine to our Grand Rounds lecture series.

This year, we were able to host a robust list of visiting Grand Rounds speakers, including:

Ivetta Motola, MDMark Mycyk, MDJessie Pines, MDJohn Wilson, MDChris Colwell, MDMike Winters, MDKinjal Sethuraman, MDEric Nadel, MDBaruch Krauss, MDJen Wiler, MDCarey Chisholm, MDShan Liu, MDMegan Fix, MDWalter, Eppich, MD

Still, the monumental change is simple, yet significant: Division to Department. As we change letterhead, business cards and recruiting materials to reflect the change – we look forward to a bright future! I am incredibly excited to be turning the program over to Dr. Mary Westergaard’s capable hands – I know that she will do an amazing job! I am incredibly proud of how far and how fast our program has devel-oped. I would like to thank each and every one of you as you have been instrumental in making it all happen. On Wisconsin!

Early in my intern year I realized that I needed a little bit of structure with respect to my learning plan. At the same time, I wanted to find a way to incorporate all of the asynchronous learning that I was doing already (e.g. podcasts, blogs, etc). When we realized that there wasn’t any existing curricula like this, we decided to make our own - “The Wisconsin Model” was born.

Ababa University and serving as academic/clinical attending in the emergency department. In November 2013, he and Dr. James Svenson travelled to Capetown, South Africa to par-ticipate in Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa’s aca-demic conference along with 500 other health care providers with the goal to shape emergen-cy care in Africa. While there, Dr. Tupesis pre-sented a didactic proposal entitled Developing Resi-dency Training Programs Globally – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and had the chance to present our own “Wisconsin Model” of iTunesU curriculum de-velopment and implemen-tation at the conference’s poster session. Consensus

findings from the conference have recently been submitted for publication in The Lancet! In May, the SAEM annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia held a con-sensus conference titled “Global Health and Emergency Care: A Research Agenda” to establish research priorities for global health. Dr. Tupesis chaired the

Education session and many faculty members participated! Throughout the year, the University of Wisconsin staff had five publications in Academic Emergency Medicine relating to global health and were editors/authors in the African Federation of Emergency Medicine’s first text book: AFEM

We are pleased that the University of Wisconsin Global Health programs have had anoth-er incredible year! Our work in Ethiopia, through the Emergen-cy Medicine Training Initiative, thrives as faculty and residents continue to build our profession-al relationships with residents and healthcare practitioners in Ethiopia through education. Two of our residents participated in clinical electives in Ethiopia this year (See their articles be-low). We are also proud to an-nounce that in October 2013 the first Emergency Medicine Resi-dents in the history of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia graduated after three years of training! Throughout the year, Dr. Janis Tupesis engaged in several trips to Ethiopia volunteering at Addis

Global Health Update

Janis, Tupesis, MDDirector of Academic DevelopmentDirector of Global Health Programs, EMAssociate Professor, Emergnecy Medicine

Hand-book of Acute and Emergency Care. Dr. Sven-son also engaged in clinical and teaching en-deavors in both Ethiopia and Liberia. In September, Dr. Mike Abernethy traveled to Cuba to the DevelopingEM conference in Havana and explored new directions in medical education and how to enhance medical educa-tion as it interacts with information technology. DevelopingEM is a group that aims to enhance medi-cal care to underserved regions of the world through the sharing of information and this September, Dr. Abernethy will travel to Salvador, Brazil for this year’s DevelopingEM conference. It’s fair to say that another exciting year in Global Health can be expected as residents and faculty continue to pursue interests world-wide in an effort to strengthen educational opportunities, enhance coordination of healthcare services and partner with various institutions to develop quality emergency care throughout the world.

It’s been a busy year for the emergency medicine student rotations. Last July, we began implementation of a new simu-lation-based curriculum for our advanced rotators. We eliminat-ed student lectures altogether, replacing them with simulation experiences where students have the opportunity to put their new-ly-acquired skills and knowledge to the test using realistic clinical scenarios. The results have been overwhelmingly positive; anony-mous end-of-rotation evaluations showed that all students recom-mend simulation-based training

for future rotators. In addition, the self-reported compliance with assigned readings increased sig-nificantly. Next year, we’re look-ing forward to adding and refin-ing the cases, as well as offering specialty-specific cases for post-match day students going into various specialties. Implementa-tion of the new curriculum could not have been accomplished without the commitment of Drs. Ross, Damewood, Vaughn, Scrattish and Sharp. Thank you all for your dedication and enthu-siasm! It is hard to believe that Niki

Hagen has been the student coordinator for only one year. Her dedication, skills, and com-passion in working with students were pivotal in ensuring a successful experience for all our rotators, especially those who have just matched into emer-gency medicine. Katy Oksuita remains an important source of knowledge and advice for students and faculty alike, and her ongoing support for the clerkship is greatly appreciated. The Resident Mentor Project is in full swing, pairing fourth year UW and visiting students with EM residents for structured mentoring during this critical time in their careers. Drs. David Tillman, Meredith Masters, and Holly Caretta-Weyer have taken the resident lead this year for the project, and we are grateful

Dr. Mary Westergaard and Dr. Jamie Hess together at the 2013 Annual Faculty retreat.

Mary Westergaard, MDResidency Program DirectorAssistant Professor, Emergency Medicine

Medical Student Update

She has an outstanding track record with medical education, and we all look forward to seeing the student programs mature and thrive under her leadership. In Match Day news, Emergen-cy Medicine was the 3rd most popular specialty for UW stu-dents this year, following Internal and Family Medicine. We are pleased to announce the newest 15 members of the specialty:

for their efforts to ensure our students get personalized advice from someone who’s “been there.” Thanks also to Dr. Mark Brown-son, who was last year’s resident leader. With the formation of our new Department, we will assume responsibility for all emergen-cy medicine rotations within the SMPH. This transition has allowed us to renew ties with our

affiliated institutions and rota-tions; students currently have the ability to complete emergency medicine rotations in LaCrosse, Green Bay, Milwaukee, and at Meriter, in addition to UW. I am very excited to introduce our new Clerkship Director, Dr. Jamie Hess. On July 1st, I will transition to the role of Program Director, and Dr. Hess will be taking the reins for the clerkship.

Erin AufderHeide: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TXPeter Coenen: Regions Hospital/HealthPartners, St. Paul, MN

Michael Dreis: Henry Ford HSC, Detroit, MISamuel Evers: Geisinger Health Systems, Danville, PA

Carl Gladitsch: University of Nebraska Affiliated Hospitals, Omaha, NELogan Gorges: San Antonio Military Medical Center, San Antonio, TX

Stephen Hunt, University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Seattle, WAChloe McCoy: Palmetto Health Richland, Columbia SC

Brooke Moungey: University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison, WIChristina Nussbaum: Vidant Medical Center/ East Carolina University, Greenville, NC

Bradley Peterson: Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals, Milwaukee, WIAmanda Polsinelli: University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, OHShashank Ravi: University of Wisconsin Hopsital and Clinics, Madison WI

Barrett Wagner: Hennepin Co Medical Center, Minneapolis, MNNathan Zapolsky: Einstein/Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, NY

Over the last year Emergen-cy Medicine has continued to gain institutional and nation-al recognition for operational improvements in the Emergency Department. This includes the use of best practices to deliver high quality and efficient care to patients in the UW Emergency Department. We are now the busiest Emergency Department in the city of Madison and are the only ED that is still experiencing vol-ume growth. As Emergency Department patient volume continues to sky-rocket, the integra-tion of data-driven decision making into our opera-tional planning has enhanced our capability to deliv-er exceptional care in a more timely manner than ever

before. This is positioning our department to become a national leader in Emergency Medicine quality and efficiency related metrics. As an example, despite increased patient volume, our average length of stay has actually decreased. We are also unique in that we have the only dedicated Pediatric Emergency Department in the city, a testament to our goal to provide the highest level of care for all of our patients. Our efforts have been greatly

aided by the addition of Dr. Andy Lee, who has worked closely with Drs. Jeff Pothof and Brian Sharp to substantially grow our portfo-lio of operational and quality im-provement efforts. Almost all de-partmental quality projects have a resident team member, and as such, we were proud to have eight high quality projects presented as posters at the inaugural UW Resident Quality Symposium in April, 2014. Other highlights from last year

include national attention to our Flexible Care Area (FCA) pa-tient care model at the Scientific Assembly of the American College of Emergency Physicians last October, as well as multiple im-provements made to the electronic medical record to

Brian Sharp, MDAssociate Director of Residency ProgramMedical Director, The American Center

Andrew Lee, MDAssociate Director of EM QualityAssociate EM Clinical Services Chief

Left: Jeff Pothof MDAssistant Professor, Emer-gency MedicineClinical Services Chief

Operations Update

ensure discharge vital signs. We also introduced complaint specific ordersets with indication based radiology study order entry and evidence based antibiogram specific antibiotic ordersets. We have been deliberately pro-active in establishing Emergency Medicine as the institutional “go-to” for inter-disciplinary work. Dr. Pothof has partnered with other service lines, such as Radiology and Psychiatry, which has resulted in implementing the Psychiatry consult and Radiology read turnaround time reports. Both are the first of their kind at UW. In utilizing input from other physician colleagues out-side the UW system, Dr. Sharp

and the operational team have guided the UW ED “Stop Sepsis” initiative from design to imple-mentation in just nine months. We have implemented new workflow changes to improve the safety of patient handoff at shift change. Our inter-disciplinary efforts have also found us looking at ways to improve quality and efficiency beyond the day to day clinical environment. As we refine and build a complex data and reporting infrastructure, we find ourselves deeply engaged with stakeholders in the database and data-warehousing realm. We are currently redesigning the structure and capabilities of our

existing data sources. With seem-ingly endless patient data at our fingertips, we know we can lead the national movement of highest quality care while maintaining the best value for our patients. While the ED continues to become busier, UW Emergency Medicine is remaining on top of things by advancing in a number of ways. Our strong operations team is constantly fighting the pressures of a growing ED by adapting innovative ideas like FCA and efficiently navigating our data sources to improve quality of care. The department is well equipped to deal with the challenges that are crowding the future of healthcare.

Faculty focus during a neonatal lecture while at the 2013 Faculty Retreat. Time for this was op-timal as Peds EM recently opened a specialized neonatal space in the department.

Jim Svenson, MD, MSAssociate Professor, Emergency MedicineDirector of Research

The rapid growth of research within Emergency Medicine has continued throughout the past year. We are continuing towork on building an infrastruc-ture that will aid patient identi-fication, recruitment, and data management. To that end, we hired Sean Golden as a research coordinator during the past year. John Harringa will serve as Sean’s successor when Sean leaves us in July to transition to medical school here at UWSMPH. Dr. Michael Kim has continued to work with IT in developing an

alert system for patient identifi-cation for research recruitment using the patient’s EMR in real time. This work was awarded funding as an innovation grant by ICTR this year. The breadth of different inter-

Research Update

ests in the faculty is reflected in the various projects undertaken by faculty and residents this year. While we continue to have major foci of interest in pain and sedation (Drs. Kim, Svenson), pre-hospital medicine (Drs.Lohmeier, Wubben, Scrattish), education/simulation (Drs. Ross, Hess, Tupesis, Westergaard), and imaging (Drs. Repplinger, Damewood, Vaughn), other projects have focused on MRSA (Dr. Pulia), cost-effectiveness and decision-making (Dr. Patterson), patient flow and quality

(Drs. Hamedani, Pothof, Lee, Sharp) and sports injuries (Dr. Rebella). This list is but a sample of all the research that is ongoing in Emergency Medicine. We had a very success-ful Research Day this last October and plan on an-other great day this upcom-ing October, 10/16/2014. We participated in MCW EM Annual Research Day

and Dr. Vanessa Tamas won best poster presentation for her poster on the utility of lactate in pediatric patients with suspected intussusception. Resident education and en-gagement in research is a high

priority. This year we launched a new research curriculum to focus on research topics in a monthly conference format. Finally, we are continuing to encourage collaborations with other departments and providers. Dr. Pulia is collaborating with infectious disease in surveying hand hygiene awareness among patients and visitors. We contin-ue to enroll patients for Neurologic Emergency Treat-ment Trials (NETT) study of clopidrogel in subjects with TIA . We are participating with pulmo-nary providers in the BARD (Best

African Ameri-can Response to Asthma Drugs) trial and with pediatric infec-tious disease in studying the role of steroids in first time UTI in children. Altogether this is an exciting time for re-search in EM at UW. For

more information on some of our current projects please visit our research studies page: http://www.emed.wisc.edu/research.

revamped to include a simulated abdominal pain case. The ultra-sound team is working with key leaders in the medical school to discuss opportunities to provide ultrasound education to medical students in the preclinical years. It is no small feat to keep up with national trends of ultrasound use and oversight. With more recent emphasis on ultrasound, namely with ultrasound as part of the ACGME Milestones evaluation and noted as the standard of care for central line placement, there is increased focus on both resident and faculty ultrasound education. The EM faculty is en-couraged to become ultrasound credentialed by January 2015. This will help support resident scanning while on clinical shifts, and incorporation of clinician performed ultrasound into medi-cal decision making. With increased interest in ultrasound outside of emergency medicine, the ultrasound pro-gram has received requests from the VA hospitalist group, UW

hospitalist group, Pulmonary Critical Care, and Internal Medicine residency programs for ultra-sound education. There has even been a request to open an ultrasound fellowship! While the focus of the ul-trasound team will always be on educa-tion of EM residents and faculty, sharing

ultrasound knowledge with other specialties will improve patient safety and care.

Ultrasound Update

Sara Damewood, MDAssistant Professor, EMDirector of EM Ultra-sound

Our dedicated team of ultra-sound faculty, including Drs. Sara Damewood (Ultrasound Direc-tor), Jamie Hess, Dana Resop and Chris Vaughn, have been busy optimizing ultrasound operations and education this year!The cornerstone of the resident ultrasound curricula, the intern rotation, continues to be a pop-ular rotation during the PGY1 year. Interns dedicate 1:1 scan-ning and feedback time with the ultrasound faculty throughout their rotating month. They pre-pare an “Ultrasound Case of the Month” under guidance of ultra-sound faculty, which represents the first opportunity for resi-dents to give formal conference presentations during residency, and the quality has been unwav-eringly high. Ultrasound COM has been well received and hits key learning points on a variety of ultrasound topics. Changes to the intern rotation this year standardized the time spent on rotation, helping each intern reach their goal of 100 scans by the end of the rotation. Ultrasound lectures and hands on workshops are incorporated into Thursday conferences so that residents can continue to prac-tice ultrasound fundamentals on standardized patient models and ultrasound simulators through-out their residency. Ultrasound content presented at confer-ence will follow the established 18-month EM core modular curriculum didactic series next year, such that all ACEP recog-nized ultrasound indications

would be covered twice during residency. When residents are not reinforcing their ultrasound tech-niques during their ultrasound rotation or on Thursday work-shops, Dr. Resop has developed ultrasound educational opportu-nities for residents while on their Beloit rotations. Another milestone for the pro-gram this year has been Qpath integration. Qpath is software that allows for clinically relevant images performed on the ED Sonosites to be uploaded to PACS for better continuity of care. Qpath provides a more transpar-ent way to provide feedback and promotes better manage-ment of all ultrasound data. Ultimately, it is a welcome addition! For the upcoming year, the ultrasound team is looking at future collabo-rations within the medical school. Dr. Vaughn led the popular ultrasound workshop for EMIG this year. The ultrasound team also crafted and executed a monthly ultrasound work-shop for medical students on their EM rotation. Under the direction from Drs. Hess and Vaughn, this workshop will be

The academic year started with a bang for the Wellness Committee, with a number of our members forming an Alum-ni Affairs Sub-Committee and organizing the Residency Pro-gram’s first Alumni Weekend. After months of planning, we welcomed alumni from all classes back to Madison on September 6-7, 2013, to reconnect with the program and with each other. Activities included a

conference day led by program alumni, a summer barbeque hosted by Dr. Michael and Tara Lohmeier, and tailgating at Camp Randall followed by the Badger routing of the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. Money raised during the weekend went into to the program’s new Alumni Fund. Following our standard fall calendar of pre-interview socials, culminating with the Rank Pary at Dr. Hamedani’s in late Febrary, the Wellness Committee calendar finally found its stride with old traditions. Dr. Tupesis and Dr. Hamedani opened their

homes to residents during Thanksgiving and Christmas, respectively. Dr. Lohmeier once again hosted a Capital One Bowl party on January 1st, and Dr. Pothof found a way to host his annual Super Bowl Party despite his busy travel schedule. For the first time in three years, Dr. Abernethy was finally able to lead a walk from Memori-al Union to Governor’s Island across a frozen Lake Mendota. To wrap up the winter, Dr. Jim Berbee continued a tradition started by this year’s third year residents by hosting the pre-in-

Residents fit in quick naps while waiting for their turn during the Mock Oral Boards sessions at the Fall 2013 Resident Retreat.

Wellness Committee Update

Mission Statement:The University of Wisconsin Emergency Medicine Well-ness Committee is dedicated to helping promote resident job satisfaction in the emergency department. We foster a sense of community through regular social outings, annual community service events, and by encouraging attending or resident meals/gatherings at holidays. We provide a context for mentorship between residents and attendings and encourage dialogue during both good and trying times in residency. We aim to promote balance in work and life by striving to hold one social event a month.

Benjamin Ho, MDChief ResidentPGY3

Dr. Michael Abernethy and the gang hiking across lake Mendota.

The Wellness Com-mittee strives to foster a sense of community, mentorship, and dialogue within the residents and faculty by planning social events, service opportunities, lectures, and workshops. While the 2013-2014 year in Wellness certainly stayed true to this mission, we are continually looking for new ideas to bring everyone together. We will soon have volunteer dates available for res-

idents interested in staffing the UW School of Medicine’s MEDiC Clinics. If you are interested in helping with Wellness Committee events in the future, please come to a meeting!

service “Miracle” party at his home. Let’s hope that our team of residents was as suc-cessful against the inservice as the 1980’s U.S. Men’s Hockey Team was against the Soviets! This was followed by another big screen event on Resident Appreciation Day, with the res-idency leadership sponsoring a viewing of the EMRA film “24/7/365,” as well as treats and “thank you” cookies that nearly lasted another 24 hours in the residency lounge. Although the year came to a quick close, the Wellness Committee was active in keeping the spring calendar full of events. Dr. Scott Fruhan did an out-standing job promoting our third annual Mustache March contest. Thanks to 20 grown mustaches

and 155 votes, EM managed to raise $975 to put towards a chari-ty of the winner’s choice. A sunny forecast also shined this year for Dr. Svenson to host his pool par-ty on Memorial Day. The day was definitely of the holiday variety!

Dr. Andrew Lee and Dr. Sharp are cast as Dr. McSleezy and Dr. McCreepy on this season’s Grey Anatomy. Not the roles they thought they tried out for...

The Mustach March winner’s square. Top Left (Clockwise): AJ Colby (Dynamite), James Ballard, Steven Drevlow, Matt Brownson

Simulation Update

We continue to have a very active simulation and procedural skills training program. Over the past year we have welcomed nursing residents and students in an effort to increase interprofes-sional training. They have been a welcome addition, adding to the realism of the cases and high-lighting important communication and teamwork principles. We very much look forward to

growing this partnership. This past fall our EM faculty participated in a simula-tion-based workshop focused on neonatal resuscitation skills and managing adverse events associated with pediatrics seda-tion. Working with faculty from neonatology and pediatric critical care, we had great turnout and enthusiastic participation. We thank the entire faculty for

their interest and investment, and we hope to offer similar types of training in the future. Through the Emergency Medi-cal Services for Children we have received a grant that allowed for the purchase of two new high-fidelity manikins – a school age child and a newborn. Having the neonatal manikin will be very helpful in training specif-ic concepts related to neonatal

Residents particpate in a simulation session during conferences and gain hands-on medical experience.

resuscitation in the ED, as our new NICU opened summer of 2014. We are also excited to welcome our first Simulation Fellow, Dr. Ryan Thompson. Dr. Thomp-son is well known to our group and has shown great interest and talent as a simulation educator. He already developed expertise teaching our medical students during their weekly simulation session. Dr. Thompson also planned a very successful UW Resident vs. Faculty SimWars in the spring (resident team just edged out the faculty) that we look forward to repeating in future years. Finally, during Grand Rounds on May 29th, we welcomed Dr. Walter Eppich from Northwest-ern University. He is an inter-national expert in simulation education, specifically related to facilitating effective debriefings. We were lucky to host such an engaging speaker at conference! As always, thanks for all your support and special thanks to our entire Simulation Team who organize, create and facilitate the training. If you’re interested in becoming more involved as a fac-

ulty member or resident, please con-tact Katy Oksuita or myself. Residents are welcome to join our Simulation Interest Group and with medi-cal student teaching.

Josh Ross, MDMedical Director, Peds Emergency MedicineDirector of Simulation

Emergency Medicine:Year of the Babies

Mikey (age 3) and Luca (Born 3/8/14) Pulia

Anna Lynn Lohmeier (Born 3/14/14)

Nora Pothof (Born 4/3/2014)

Jack Mancera (Born 11/7/13)

First Annual Alumni Weekend!The Residency Program held the first ever alumni weekend this Fall of 2013 in hopes of reuniting some of the last four classes of residents back to the city of Madison and the UW Hopsital. The turn-out was great, and with Dr. Mike Lohmeier hosting a fantastic pre-evening football game BBQ, the week-end started off as a success. Past and current residents were then able to attend a UW Football game togther and contin-ued the tailgating fun. The residency program will be looking foward to another successful alumni weekend in 2015-2016.

Greetings from Utah. My first year out of residency took me out to Salt Lake City for a sports medicine fellowship at University of Utah. It’s been a phenomenal year. Utah can take a little bit of getting used to, but the people have been great, the mountains are 25 minutes away and the national parks are abundant. Most importantly, with a clinic life, I work a 9-5 job and sleep like a normal human being (for now). In my sports medicine role, I have had the good fortune to work with the University of Utah athletic teams, be the on-hill doc for the US Ski and Snowboard association in one of their Olympic qualify-ing events, and cover the US Speed Skating team. In addition, I have continued to work in the ED, getting to work closely with med students and residents. It’s been a rewarding experience! Next year I will be joining the University of Colorado in an academic EM-Sports role. It seems that the mountains called and I listened. If anyone is taking a ski vacation, let me know! If you don’t, you may just end up seeing me in the mountain clinic instead. Thanks to all who have helped me get to this point! I am extremely grateful! Hope everyone else is well! - Alex Ebinger, MD Class of 2013

Moving to Great Falls Montana has been quite a change from Madison. After three years as a Badger, I decided to ex-perience the mountain west. Work has been challenging but rewarding, and the first time I pulled the trigger on an intu-bation was a very nerve racking experience. As time goes on, though, confidence grows and sleep comes a little easier. A little lesson I learned after two patients with bacterial menin-gitis in a month and a half: two grams of ceftri and a dose of vanco will do more good than harm.Residency in Madison was incredibly fun. I feel like I’ve swapped coffee shops, concerts on the square, and the terrace with snowboarding, fishing, and hunting. Not sure which I enjoyed more, though Montana snowboarding is a slight step up from Cascade, but few places can rival the terrace on a sunny day. All in all, no complaints with life I suppose. Hope everyone is doing great and I look forward to seeing you guys at graduation! – Matthew Newsted, MD Class of 2013

Alumni Updates!

Any major life change is a challenge, and embarking on a new career in Emergency Medicine is no exception. Flexibility is key in practicing Emergency Medicine. One year out of residency, I see how valuable training to be flexible at UW has been.Throughout residency I staffed with numerous attendings who all have varied practice styles. Some more minimalist, some less so. Shifts in Beloit carry a different patient population than UW and their workups must be tailored to their resources for outpatient followup as well as cultural barriers. Now with ED shifts at the VA, residents at UW must learn even more flexibility and adapt yet again to a different environment. This has to be one of the most challenging parts of training, but it may be one of the most important.I currently staff the ED at four different hospitals within two hospital systems in the Milwaukee area. Each hospital is very different from the last. One in the suburbs surrounded by a plethora of nursing facilities, one with an urban population downtown, a rural hospital amongst farmland, and another in a northern suburb settled amongst country clubs. You can imagine the patient population differs greatly in each setting. Depending on the day and practice site, I see everything from GSW trauma to farm injuries to cosmetic surgery complications. Growing pains are to be expected for any new graduate from any residency, but UW has prepared me well. Congratulations to all new graduates this spring! The next big change is coming with your new positions throughout the country - but you will be well prepared.On Wisconsin! - Brian Eiche, MD Class of 2013

Good Bye Class of 2014!