Over the past year, I’ve contributed two well-received articles for the Focus On series in ACEP News: Trauma in the Obstetric Patient in July 2010 and Perinatal Disaster Management in September 2011 (both can be found at www.acep.org/focuson). I was honored to be invited by the publication’s editorial panel to provide a quarterly column that focuses on unique aspects of emergency care of the pregnant patient. The goal of this column will be to provide practical recommendations for the EP on common presenting problems in this population. I will often have coauthors, including specialists in that topic, as well as perinatologist input. One of our residents will be an integral part of this group. Our column is not intended to be a standard of care, but rather a sound, easy-to-use package of recommendations that would be considered one avenue for providing optimal care.

Each article will have a clinical tool – a summary that can stand alone for easy reference. In fact, our Trauma Table is posted in a number of EDs that I have visited. As ACEP News technology progresses, we hope to have these as a library with the tables hyperlinked to the specific didactic parts of the articles.

In this issue, we debut our first article, Stroke in Pregnancy (pp. 22-24). This will provide a nice supplement to any stroke protocols at your hospital. Later in 2012, we plan to have one on sepsis and another on cardiac emergencies, including acute coronary syndromes.

I look forward to sharing this column with you.

Dr. Roemer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Oklahoma (OU) School of Community Medicine, Tulsa.