CORD Newsletter

Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors
August/September, 1998

1998 National CPC Competition

The National CPC Competition will be held on Tuesday, October 13, 8:00-11:30 am, during the ACEP Scientific Assembly in San Diego. It is not necessary to register for the Scientific Assembly if you plan only to attend the CPC. Congratulations and good luck to the Regional Competition winning presenters and discussants who will participate in the National Competition. Special thanks to the Regional and National Competition coordinators and judges who volunteer their time to support this educational activity.

National CPC Competition Participants
Presenters
Amy Hutson, MD
Highland General Hospital
Michelle Bache, MD
Methodist/Indiana University
Samuel Connolly, MD
University of Massachusetts
Allison Silver, MD
Temple University Hospital
Sangita Rangala, MD
Cook County Hospital
Discussants
Louis Durkin, MD
Baystate Medical Center
Pamela Ross, MD
University of Virginia
George Higgins, MD
Maine Medical Center
David Chuirazzi, MD
Allegheny General Hospital
Robert Gerhardt, MD
Texas Tech
Coordinators and Judges

Rita Cydulka, MD, National Coordinator

Yolanda Haywood, MD, Nick Jouriles, MD, Mike Wade, MD, Terry Kowalenko, MD, Karen-Randall-Krystal, DO, Leslie Wolf, MD, Glenn Tokarsky, MD, Andy Jagoda, MD, Dan Joyce, MD, Scott Hill, MD, Carol Barsky, MD, Judith Brillman, MD, Brian Tiffany, MD, Richard Hartoch, MD, Eric Koscove, MD, Kevin Rodgers, MD, Scott Doak, MD, Marco Coppola, MD, Peggy Goodman, MD, and Michael Beeson, MD.

CORD Membership Directory

CORD is also updating its annual Membership Directory. Each program is asked to update its list of three representatives by sending their names, addresses, phone, fax and e-mail addresses to the CORD office at cord@cordem.org or via fax at 517-485-0801.

In addition, this year CORD would like to include your program's residency coordinator. Be sure to send your residency coordinator's phone, fax, and e-mail address to the CORD office.

President's Message

"TIME"

It was very exciting for me to experience the graduation of the first class of emergency medicine residents at the University of Virginia residency program in June 1998. The program at UVa is a 3-year program which started in June 1995. I realized how much I missed the graduation functions (accolades, parties, awards, hugs, farewells, tears, etc.) as the emergency medicine residents from UVa completed the program and went on to their respective jobs. I had missed the activity for the last 2 years since leaving Allegheny General Hospital. The day to day administrative, political, and interdepartmental hassles can often overshadow the true joys of teaching residents, students, and others.

Just prior to residents graduating, the new faces of the entering first year group of emergency medicine residents come into the program and begin their 3 to 4 year trek. In some instances, it is a five year trek (combined EM/IM or EM/Peds programs). The time period for resident and faculty interaction really turns out to be short. I vividly remember the first days of working with new residents, the resident orientation sessions, and the new resident welcoming party. It appears that the years pass quickly between new resident orientations and graduation day. Many programs hold a resident academic/research presentation day for the graduating residents. This always seems to be a fun day, which tends to culminate the academic activity and is sort of the highlight of the resident matriculation. Generally, it ends in some type of party or outing.

The maturation of the residents really becomes obvious as they grow from their first few days of residency training to their senior years when they take charge of the department. This maturation is the end result of the teaching and mentoring emergency medicine faculty provide to medical students and some cases pre-medical students (EMT's, paramedics, college students who ultimately enter medical school and then residency). In the end, the efforts of the residency programs pays off in the form of emergency medicine trained physicians who become members of the local communities where they were trained or members of communities throughout the country. Some of the graduates we never see again, in some cases they become our colleagues, and in some cases they become our competitors. How quickly the cycle goes. By the time you read this newsletter you will be well into the application process for entering candidates for the upcoming year and interview season will soon be upon us again. We are all very busy and seemingly never have enough time to do all we need to do. Someone sent me the following piece about time that I'll share with you:

Imagine there is a bank which credits your account each morning with $86,400, carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day. What would you do?

Draw out every cent, of course!

Well, everyone has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night, it burns the records of the day.

If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today...

To realize the value of ONE YEAR
Ask a student who has failed his final exam.

To realize the value of ONE MONTH
Ask a mother who has given birth to a pre-mature baby.

To realize the value of ONE WEEK
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of ONE DAY
Ask a daily wage laborer who has ten kids to feed.

To realize the value of ONE HOUR
Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of ONE MINUTE
Ask a person who has missed the train.

To realize the value of ONE SECOND
Ask a person who has survived an accident.

To realize the value of ONE MILLI-SECOND
Ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.

To find the value of ONE LIFETIME
Ask someone who missed their chance.

Treasure every moment that you have!

I am already looking forward to the CORD meeting at the ACEP Scientific Assembly in San Diego and I look forward to seeing you there. The 1998-99 CORD Task Force and Committees composition objectives are contained in this newsletter. Your comments or suggestions regarding the objectives are welcome. As CORD president, I look forward to continued progress on each of these areas.

Marcus Martin, MD
University of Virginia

Photo Directory on Home Page

The CORD Photo Directory is on-line and ready for visitors. Be sure to check it out at www.cordem.org. If you aren't included, be sure to send your photo to the CORD office. Please, no polaroids.

To help complete the Photo Directory, CORD hopes to have a photographer in San Diego to take individual photos. If you are interested in signing up, please contact the CORD office at cord@cordem.org for details. Tentative plans call for the photographer to be available on Tuesday, October 13 from 10:00 am until 12:00 noon.

ORR Representatives Appointed

Each year CORD is asked to appoint residents to serve as emergency medicine's representatives to the Organization of Resident Representatives of the AAMC. This year CORD received many fine nominations and it was difficult to make a selection.

Flavia Nobay, MD, is a fourth year resident and chief resident at Highland General Hospital. She will serve a two-year term on the ORR through June 2000.

Daniel Gutman, MD, is a second year resident at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and will serve a two-year term from June 1999-June 2001.

Rebecca Parker, MD, has a year remaining in her tenure on the ORR and will complete her term in June 1999.

Kieu Nguyen, MD, has completed his term on the ORR. CORD would like to thank Dr. Nguyen and Dr. Parker for their efforts on the specialty's behalf and welcome Dr. Gutman and Dr. Nobay as they begin their terms on the ORR.

The ORR representatives will provide reports on their activities at the ORR. Watch for these reports in future Newsletters.

EKG Task Force Needs Volunteers

The CORD EKG taskforce is in need of EM faculty interested in contributing to our project. Authors and editors would be reading, coding and editing actual EKGs on-line.

  1. We are not soliciting contributions of EKGs at this time. All currently included EKGs have been collected at one site, Northwestern, and will be loaded onto the database.

  2. Potential authors will need to access their assigned EKGs by going to the temporary web site at Northwestern being used to develop the database.

  3. Authors must have access to a computer with version 3.X of Netscape or version 4.x of either Netscape or Internet Explorer. In addition, a computer capable of SVGA resolution (800-600) or XGA resolution (1024 X768) will be necessary. Internet access may be either by modem or direct connection.

  4. Authors will be assigned EKGs which they will view on-line. Reading an EKG involves:
    1. Stating findings based on the classification/coding scheme which we will forward to authors
    2. Coding findings with their pre-designated codes on that scheme (assistance will be provided)
    3. Designing a clinical scenario for a case reflecting the EKG
    4. Writing a set of relevant teaching points

    Those steps will be ALL entered on-line as well, by typing them into a frame that comes up with the internet browser.

  5. The final database will be accessible only via a link from the CORD web site, and only to CORD members, using their assigned username and password.

  6. Due to future possible use of these EKGs by program directors for testing, authors must agree to not reproduce or otherwise distribute copies of the EKGs which they are assigned.

  7. Editors will review and approve all submissions before they are released to the general CORD membership.

  8. We have as a goal completing the prototype with at least 50-100 done in advance for the October 98 CORD meeting in San Diego.

  9. Contributors can be either CORD members or on faculty in an EM residency program. A background in electrocardiography and/or CORD membership are preferable.

Please forward to akazzi@uci.edu the full name of interested faculty.

We also will need answers to the following questions:
Name (Last, First):
Institution:
Affiliated to which residency program?
E-mail address:
Phone number:
Position (e.g. Medical student coordinator, research director):
Title (MD, DO, PhD, MHPE):
Academic rank (e.g. Associate clinical professor):
CORD member? Yes/ No
Background in Electrocardiography: Yes/No
If Yes, please specify:

Any special area of interest in Electrocardiography (e.g. Pediatric EKGs, Wide complex tachycardia, AV Blocks). Thank you for your support.

Ed Michelson, MD
Antoine Kazzi, MD
Marc Squillante, DO
CORD EKG Taskforce

CORD Develops Three New Listservs

The Board has received a number of requests for the development of listservs which would be helpful to emergency medicine residency programs. Since listservs use both administrative and financial resources, the Board has carefully considered the requests and is pleased to announce three new listservs:

chiefres@toto.com has been developed to allow chief residents at CORD member programs to discuss areas of mutual interest and concern.

medstuedu@toto.com has been developed in associated with SAEM as a communication means for all faculty involved in the direction of medical student EM didactic or clinical curriculum.

rescoor@toto.com has been developed as a means for the EM residency program coordinators and secretaries to communicate.

For all of these lists, individuals who wish to subscribe should send an e-mail to the CORD office at . The CORD office will coordinate the listservs, but will not monitor or edit discussions. It is hoped that these additional listservs will be helpful to the membership. Feel free to send your comments and suggestions to CORD.

RRC-EM Report to CORD in Chicago

During the CORD meeting in Chicago, Dr. Larry Sulton provided an informative report to the CORD membership. Dr. Sulton reported on the RRC-EM's actions taken during 1997:

Provisional 2
Continued Provisional 3
Full Accreditation 8
Continued Full Accreditation 12
Proposed Withdraw 2

Dr. Sulton provided a full report on the number of common citations which is published in this issue of the Newsletter.

Dr. Sulton discussed progress reports and how they should be handled: