Here in sunny South Florida, we continue to blend work with pleasure, whether during off-shore boating adventures, intracoastal cruises, or lazy beach days (socially distancing, of course). We have welcomed medical students back to the ED post-Covid sabbatical, and are continuing with in-hospital ultrasound shifts on a weekly basis, while attending virtual sessions to review our scans.

Educational opportunities abound, as covering three contrasting hospitals can be both intense and amazing. The trauma service, in particular, has continued to be busy at both Delray Medical Center and St. Mary’s Medical Center, both level 1 trauma centers with very different and unique patient populations.

Monthly SIM Lab sessions have resumed, and we continue to hone procedural skills such as US-guided central lines, intubations (including fiber optic, direct laryngoscopy and GlideScope approaches), suturing and managing trauma cases. While we are always blessed with fantastic Grand Rounds speakers, we were recently honored to host Dr. Ammal Mattu, who gave an engaging and informative discussion on emergency cardiology.

The 2020-21 academic year is now in full swing, with first year residents firing on all cylinders. Our weekly didactic conferences, while virtual at the moment, are still as engaging and interactive as ever, and our medical students impress us daily. We are very excited to say that we will resume in-person conferences, with face-to-face discussion resuming on October 13.

Our faculty and residents offer a big congratulations to new chief residents, Dr. Danielle Klein and Dr. Zachariah Hatoum. They are thriving in their new roles and have added immense value to the program through their hard work and leadership.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic continues to present a challenge in all areas of medicine, our program is very fortunate to have all of the PPE we need to care for our patients, thanks to tenacious governance within both our program and our hospital systems. Even though we all want the pandemic to end, we are viewing it as a unique time in history, offering academic and clinical challenges that will better prepare us as well-rounded physicians.

Our program has continued its scholarly ascent with our very own Dr. Josh Solano having published two articles. The first, “Quality Assurance in the Emergency Department,” published in EM Clinics of North America, provides an overview of current national frameworks and organizations that help define emergency department quality standards, as well as the process required to accredit physicians in the emergency department. The second, “Public Health Strategies Contain and Mitigate COVID-19: A Tale of Two Democracies,” published in The American Journal of Medicine, elucidates some of the factors that led to the significant differences in both case rates and deaths between the USA and South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally, program director Dr. Lisa Clayton, assistant program director Dr. Patrick Hughes, former program director Dr. Richard Shih, research director Dr. Scott Alter, and recently graduated resident, Dr. Daniel Parks, published: “Rescue Intubation in the Emergency Department After Prehospital Ketamine Administration for Agitation,” in Prehospital and Disaster Medicine (2020:1-5. doi:10.1017/S1049023X20001168).

Drs. Shih and Alter published an editorial together, “The Menacing Assaults on Science, FDA, CDC, and Health of the US Public,” in EClinicalMedicine (in press). And Dr. Shih published a second editorial, “ Hydroxychloroquine for Coronavirus: The Urgent Need for a Moratorium on Prescriptions,” in Am J Med. (2020;133(9):1007-1008. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.05.005. PMID: 32502485). Overall, our four-year-old program has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Last but not least, we are very excited to announce that we have launched our own Twitter handle. Give us a follow @FAUmedEM to stay up to date with us! ■