Orlando Health

Orange Park Medical Center

By Penny Côté, MD, PGY-2

Orlando Health

By Drs. Gregory Black and Brody Hingst, PGY-3s

Happy fall from Orlando Health! The new academic year is in full swing here at Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC). Drs. Lindsay Maguire, Timothy Bullard, and Linda Papa published a systematic review in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine that was recently featured on EM:RAP’s Emergency Medical Abstracts. It investigates the role of ketamine in alleviating treatmentresistant depression as well as suicidal ideation. Additionally, Drs. Mitchell Barneck, Linda Papa, Jay Ladde, Linh Nguyen, and Josef Thundiyil published a prospective cohort study in the Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians. It investigates the utility of transcutaneous carbon dioxide measurements in the emergency department. Well done to each of you!

We have been honored to have such an exceptional group of medical student rotators these past few months. We enjoyed working with each and every one of you, and wish you the best during the upcoming interview season - you all will thrive!

Amidst our very best vaccination efforts, Orlando Health is now offering RegenCOV (casirivimab and imdevimab) by home health to patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19 ≤ 10 days who do not require hospital admission/O2 and are at risk for progression to serious illness. We have also been providing home health kits to these patients which include a pulse oximeter among other useful items. So far we have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our patients.

Lastly, it was great getting out there for Symposium by the Sea this year and seeing everyone again! Hope you all are staying safe and not feeling too bad after that third Pfizer shot. ■ In July, our EM residency became complete as we welcomed our third class of residents into our program. The interns are settling in well and making us proud, despite the continuing challenges of the pandemic. Our entire emergency department continues to adapt and work as a team to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Our PGY-3s volunteered to add additional medical ICU coverage in response to unprecedented numbers of patients suffering from COVID-19.

We welcomed a new group of medical students into our department to complete their EM rotations. We are gearing up for another interview season and are looking forward to meeting all the candidates.

Despite the constraints of the pandemic, we are collaborating with nearby programs to plan joint ultrasound training events. Many of our residents and faculty are looking forward to attending (hopefully inperson) ACEP in Boston in October.

In the research world, we welcomed Dr. Wegman to our core faculty group. He will be leading our resident-faculty research efforts. Dr. Bosely, PGY-3 will be presenting his scholarly project with the help of faculty member Dr. Davis at the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare in January. Dr. Lofgran, PGY-3 was recently awarded a grant to support his research on the effects of NSAIDS on hypothermia in rats. Drs. Côté and Baker, PGY-2s, participated in FCEP’s Case Presentation Competition and are looking forward to competing again next year.

On the horizon, OPMC has begun plans for construction of a new simulation center! We recently welcomed ultrasound fellowshiptrained faculty, Drs. Hoffman and Carr, who are both certified in resuscitative transesophageal echocardiogram. With their help, we are training all three resident classes in resuscitative TEE.

All in all, it has been a busy and exciting start to this new academic year! ■

USF at Tampa General Hospital

By Kenneth Dumas, PGY-2

Greetings from the EM family here at USF/TGH. We have some exciting updates to share.

We are very proud of our residents and faculty who have been working hard facing the most recent Covid surge. TGH has been on the forefront of treating patients with monoclonal antibody therapy and has several active Covid-19 research trials including being selected as a site for ACTIV-6, a large clinical trial that will investigate repurposed medications. We are currently looking at ways to better reach our underserved population through mobile vaccination opportunities.

Additionally we’re very proud of two of our very own residents, Dr. Buchko and Dr. Costers, who participated in FCEP’s Case Presentation Competition, with Dr. Buchko tying for 1st place as Best Resident Discussant.

As always follow along with us at our blog for the most up to date news: usfemergencymedicine.org/blog ■