Awards and Teaching

Northwestern Emergency Medicine has been recognized several times during the past year for the high quality and impact of our research. These awards reflect not only of the work of presenting authors, but also of the support from fellow investigators, mentors, patients and staff that allow a supportive and fertile environment for research. Here are some of our accomplishments:

Research Director D. Mark Courtney, MD received the “Best Faculty Presentation” award at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. His presentation, "Prospective multi-center assessment of interobserver agreement for radiologist interpretation of 64-channel CT angiography for pulmonary embolism" was selected based on reviews of his abstract, manuscript and presentation at the meeting. Dr. Courtney is the only faculty presenter to receive this nationwide award and will be recognized at the 2010 SAEM Annual Meeting to be held in Phoenix, Arizona in June 2010.
Ten NU EM investigators from the undergraduate to the resident and faculty level presented at the 19^th Annual Midwest Regional Meeting for the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), September 21, 2009 at the University of Michigan. Fellow Emilie Powell, MD and resident Brian Patterson, MD tied for first place in the resident/fellow category for oral presentations. Faculty member Rahul Khare, MD for won best faculty presentation.
The 2009 ICEP Academic Forum was held on October 2, 2009 at NMH. Residents Matthew Lazio, MD and Jon Van Roo, MD won first place for “Best Resident Presentation” for their presentation “Predictive Factors of Successful Summating on Aconcagua”. They were mentored by faculty members Sanjeev Malik, MD and Mark Courtney MD.
This year two faculty members, D. Mark Courtney, MD and Rahul Khare, MD have completed formal training in research clinical research methodology through the MSCI program at Northwestern. This was funded from federal career development grants. The curriculum included coursework in biostatistics, epidemiology, ethics and medical writing and other elective work.
In March 2009, Research Director Demetrios N. Kyriacou, MD, PhD taught an immersion course, "Introduction to Applied Statistics", in Ibadan, Nigeria. The course was developed by the Northwestern University Center for Global Health and was supported by Northwestern University, the NIH Fogarty International Center, the Harvard University School of Public Health, and the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN). It was the first project of its kind funded by the NIH in Africa. 33 students participated, mostly from Nigeria and most were physicians. The course included instruction in statistics, epidemiology, and research methods. Dr. Kyriacou also provided individual mentorship on dozens of the students’ HIV/AIDS research projects. There are plans to offer one or two students scholarships to Northwestern to obtain a Master of Science in Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
Demetrios N. Kyriacou, MD, PhD is also a member of the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute. His main focus is to promote, facilitate, and transform clinical and translation research at Northwestern University and its affiliated clinical institutions by teaching research methods to students, residents and junior faculty and advising these trainees on biostatistical and epidemiologic methodology. In addition, as part of his secondary appointment in the Department of Preventive Medicine, Dr. Kyriacou is the main instructor of Intermediate Epidemiology for all the different master's degree programs at Northwestern University.