ACEP Board, Council Election Candidates Finalized

ACEP’s Nominating Committee has selected the slate of candidates for 2023. Elections will occur during the Council meeting on Sunday, October 8, in advance of ACEP23 in Philadelphia.

During this election cycle, there are four Board of Directors positions to be filled, along with President-Elect, Council Speaker, and Council Vice Speaker.

President-Elect Candidates

• Jeffrey Goodloe, MD, FACEP (OK)
• Alison Haddock, MD, FACEP (TX)
• Ryan Stanton, MD FACEP (KY)

Council Speaker Candidate

• Melissa Costello, MD, FACEP (AL)

Vice Speaker Candidates

• Kurtis Mayz, MD, JD, FACEP (OK)
• Michael McCrea, MD, FACEP (OH)
• Larisa Traill, MD, FACEP (MI)

Board of Directors Candidates

• William Felegi, DO, FACEP (NJ)
• Robert Hancock, DO, FACEP (TX)
• Chadd Kraus, DO, CPE, FACEP (PA)
• Abhishek Mehrotra, MD, MA, FACEP (NC)
• Henry Pitzele, MD, FACEP (IL)
• James Shoemaker, MD, FACEP (incumbent – IN)

New Educational Requirements for SUD: What EM Physicians Need to Know

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released recommendations and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued specific guidance on how practitioners can meet the required training every clinician will need to receive or renew their DEA license. The requirement stems from the same legislation that repealed the X-waiver requirement for prescribing medications for opioid use disorder; stakeholders convinced Congress that additional education was also necessary. ACEP did not support this mandatory educational requirement. Fortunately, it appears that the DEA and SAMHSA are making the requirement extremely flexible. Learn more by reading ACEP’s regulatory blog at acep.org/regsandeggs.

If you still need to meet this training requirement, ACEP has you covered with this education in the Online Learning Center (acep.org/olc).

• Emergency Medicine Medication for Addiction Treatment: Core Training
• Buprenorphine Initiation and Pain Management Workshop
• EQUAL Opioid CME Collection
• ACEP Anesthesia & Analgesia Collection 2022

Award Honors Innovations in Suicide Prevention

Every year, ACEP partners with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to bestow the Innovation in Suicide Prevention Award. This honor recognizes promising and innovative acute care activities in the area of suicide prevention, that improve patient outcomes and lives of patients and/or clinicians.

The 2022 winners were Michael P. Wilson, MD, PhD, Angie Waliski, PhD, and Ronald G. Thompson, Jr., PhD, LCSW, who led the first pilot of a peer-delivered suicide safety planning program in the emergency department. EDs are many patients’ first access point to care, and 31 percent of people who die by suicide visit an ED in the year prior to their death. A safety plan empowers the patient to design and utilize a personalized list of coping skills, activities and supports for patients to cope with suicidal thoughts.

The winning researchers tested the feasibility of safety planning initiated in the emergency department, led by peers, people in the community who provide support through compassion, empathy, and lived experience with suicidal thoughts or behaviors, but lack formal medical training. The results revealed that participants were equally likely to embrace peer-delivered safety plans, and more likely to complete the programs led by peers, than those led by professionals.

EM Physician Selected for Mars Analog Mission

Nathan Jones, MD, FACEP, of Springfield, IL, Memorial Hospital, will be the medical director for NASA’s upcoming one-year analog mission known as the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA). The goal is to simulate what crew members may experience in a mission to Mars before sending astronauts into space. They will simulate spacewalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, personal hygiene, exercise, and crop growth. Learn more about aerospace medicine in this month’s cover story.