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Emergency Medicine - Research

Research among the faculty reflects a wide variety of clinical interests. The significant prevalence of pediatric trauma patients has led to projects in injury prevention, such as the evaluation of child safety in vehicles in the rural areas of Colorado and the development and support of child passenger safety initiatives. The epidemiology of traumatic injuries at our Pediatric Level 1 Trauma Center is being compared with that of other institutions. Large numbers of trauma patients have also resulted in studies of the appropriate and best use of sedation and analgesia as well as regional nerve blocks for orthopedic injuries and painful procedures.

Common respiratory illnesses are under investigation through the study of outpatient home oxygen therapy for patients with bronchiolitis, the utilization of chest radiographs in first-time wheezing episodes, and the best approaches to patients who present with acute asthma. Important advances in the field of pediatric emergency medicine, such as the use of the observation unit to prevent hospital admissions for conditions such as dehydration, concussions, and asthma, are also being investigated.

The faculty is particularly interested in emergency department practice variation, resource utilization, and predictors of patient care outcomes in various settings. These interests have resulted in pediatric health services research as well as studies focusing on the usefulness of various radiology modalities and laboratory tests in the evaluation of common pediatric disease. Additional important questions that have application outside the emergency setting include the effects of language barriers on patient care and the use of interpreters to improve care.

Dr. Lalit Bajaj’s research interests include clinical care guidelines, pediatric procedural sedation and analgesia, bronchiolitis, and quality improvement. Dr. Joan Bothner is interested in quality improvement, physician benchmarking, and leadership development. Dr. Alison Brent’s research focuses on process/system improvement, integration of emergency and urgent care medicine, implementation of clinical care guidelines, and procedural sedation and analgesia. Injury prevention is Dr. Kathryn Emery’s research interest.  Dr. Patrick Mahar is interested in medical education, toxicology, and pediatric procedural sedation and analgesia. Dr. Maria Mandt’s research interests include pre-hospital care, capnography, and pediatric procedural sedation. Dr. Lara Rappaport is involved with pre-hospital care, capnography/airway management, and laryngeal mask airways. Dr. Arleta Rewers’ research interests include acute complications of diabetes and epidemiological injury and prevention. Dr. Genie Roosevelt is involved with asthma, alternative care settings including the short stay unit, and predictors of hospitalization rates and length of stay. Dr. Erika Sidney’s research interests include head injury, head CT scans, and physician decision-making. Dr. Marion Sills is a health services researcher focusing on predictors of emergency department utilization, health care safety net issues, asthma, health information technology, decision support systems, and clinical care guidelines. Dr. Eric Tham is interested in research issues in biomedical informatics, Electronic Health Record safety and quality, adverse drug events, and clinical decision support. Dr. Tien Vu's research interests include cervical spine injury, trauma, pediatric head injury, and simulation education. Dr. Joseph Wathen focuses on pediatric procedural sedation and analgesia, concussion, nerve blocks, and disaster planning.