UPDATES FROM FLORIDA’S EMERGENCY MEDICINE RESIDENCY PROGRAMS
Mt. Sinai Medical Center Daniel Puebla, MD, PGY-2
FSU at Sarasota Memorial Thomas Cox, MD, PGY-3 Hello from Sarasota! It has been a long summer, and our residents continue to set a high standard of excellence for our community. In particular, we congratulate Dr. Geoffrey Wade on his performance in the Case Presentation Competition as one of the Best Discussants. For the Emergency Medicine Research Competition, we recognize Dr. Emily Wheeler for winning Best Case Report, and Dr. Thomas Cox for winning the Best Resident Project. In addition, we congratulate all the residents, medical students and attendings who participated in this year’s competitions. Under the instruction of Dr. Ashley Grant, Ultrasound Director, we continue to sharpen our ultrasound skills by teaching and helping our medical students and internal medicine colleagues. In addition, we have started a new study comparing the efficacy of and pain reduction for the Pericapular Nerve Group Block (PENG) vs. Facia Iliaca Compartment Block in the emergency department. In addition, our residency has welcomed our newest interns and hasgrown to its full size. Our own Dr. Kevin Raymond, PGY-3, also welcomed to the world a new baby girl, growing our residency family. Lastly, we thank all the healthcare workers, medical staffing, housekeepers and anyone who works in the healthcare industry for your hard work as this pandemic persists. ■
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Hello from Miami Beach! Our 2021 academic year is well underway and we’re extremely proud of the progress our intern class has made over the last few months. In July, our interns joined other Florida residencies at the South Florida Ultrasound Conference where they honed their sono skills through lectures and interactive stations, surely providing useful skills for the years to come. Our residency is proud to have Drs. Stephanie Fernandez and Michael Shalaby join our ranks this year as the inaugural class for our Advanced Ultrasound Fellowship. We’re excited to have them on our team as we grow together and learn the ins and outs of sonography. Welcome to Miami Beach, Drs. Fernandez and Shalaby! On the research front, we’d like to give a shout out to Drs. Jiodany Perez, Stephanie Sorenson and Michael
Rosselli for publishing an interesting case report in the British Medical Journal, utilizing musculoskeletal ultrasound in the evaluation of septic arthritis in a patient who presented to the ED with fever during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drs. Grethel Miro, Paige Swalley, Michael Dalley, Tony Zitek and David Farcy also published a prospective study on comparing the two monoclonal antibodies for COVID-19 in the Journal of Emergency Medicine. We’d also like to acknowledge Drs. Daniel Puebla and Robert Farrow for publishing an article on how to perform ultrasound-guided arthrocentesis in StatPearls. Finally, we’d like to give a warm welcome to our new core faculty members: Dr. Antoinette Golden, Assistant Program Director; Dr. Tony Zitek, Director of Research; and Dr. Nicole Warren, Medical Student Clerkship Director. ■
St. Lucie Medical Center By Nicole Tobin, DO, PGY-2 As we are sure is the case with everyone else, the chaos has continued down at St. Lucie. We are seeing upwards of 160 patients a day, which is much greater than our normal average for this time of year. It is keeping all of us residents busy and pushing us all to see more and more patients. While hectic, our senior residents are rising to the challenge, knowing that this is what we will be facing alone in just a few months. We couldn’t ask for better prep. We have also been watching our new interns get used to life in the ER. With an increase in patient volume and the number of critical patients, it probably isn’t quite what they expected to walk into when they graduated from medical EMpulse Fall 2021
school just a few short months ago. It’s exciting to see them fall into a routine in the ER as they try to navigate the life of a resident. Unfortunately, with the rise in COVID cases, we have gone back to virtual conferences. We are hopeful that at least our interns will get the chance to experience SIM lab soon, even if we cannot all be there together. We are very appreciative of our chief, Dr. Tran, for scheduling virtual guest lectures so that we can continue expanding our knowledge base. All of us at St. Lucie hope that the light at the end of the tunnel is coming soon and wish all of our fellow residents well in these crazy times! ■
