Tatsuya Norii, MD, FACEP
Hello New Mexico ACEP members,
As I promised in the last issue, we used teleconference technology at the quarterly meeting on June 29th. About 20 members attended the session in person, and two joined the meeting remotely. Because our state is so geographically large and we often work evening or night shifts, it can be difficult for us to participate in state-wide meetings. We will continue working toward making our regular meetings accessible.
Our next quarterly meeting will be held on September 26th. Similar to last year, we will join the annual meeting of the New Mexico Hospital Association (NMHA) at Embassy Suites, Albuquerque. We will have our own track at the meeting with topics focused on emergency medicine. There will also be great speakers at the general sessions, and you will be able to participate in those sessions too.
Speaking of our own track at the meeting on September 26th, we will have a guest speaker, Dr. Sharon T Phelan, professor in OB/GYN at University of New Mexico (UNM), Chair of New Mexico Maternal Mortality Committee. Maternal mortality in New Mexico is much higher than many other states. Dr. Phelan will talk about how we can collaboratively reduce maternal mortality in NM. Also, one of our board members, Dr. Rachel Tuuri, Division Chief, Pediatric Emergency Medicine at UNM will give a talk on measles/pertussis management.
If you are looking for pain training to satisfy the 5-hour requirement for your New Mexico state medical license renewal, there will be courses held at multiple localities. With the leadership of Dr. Eric Ketcham, the first official EM version of the X-waiver course will be held at four Presbyterian Healthcare Services sites (Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Espanola, and Santa Fe). The course was designed for and written by EM Docs. I highly encourage you to consider attending the course. Dr. Ketcham has an article about the course in this issue.
As you might know, it is tradition for one of our emergency medicine residents at UNM to take on the role of editor of the NM ACEP newsletter. I would like to thank Dr. Sean Rooks, PGY3, who did an excellent job as the editor last year. Sean interviewed multiple ED directors in the state including Dr. Asha Atwell with Northern Navajo Medical Center, Dr. Brett Ziercher with San Juan Regional Medical Center and Dr. Darren Shafer with Presbyterian Healthcare Services. If you missed these articles, you can access them here.
Dr. Ralph L Bauer, a PGY2 resident at UNM, took over from Sean this summer. Ralph is planning to continue Sean’s interview work. So, if you are asked to do an interview, it is not a fraud (or his job interview), so please be kind. This is an excellent opportunity to share your day-to-day successes and challenges as the director of your ED and we believe people at other places learn from your story. We appreciate the time you take to share your work with your fellow NM ACEP members.