Areas of Research
The Northwestern Emergency Medicine research program is diverse and multidisciplinary, covering a wide range of topics. A few topics of interest with ongoing research and funding include:
Pain Management & Opioid Use Disorder
Primary Researchers: Howard Kim, Danielle McCarthy, Patrick Lank, Lori Post, Maryann Mason, Megan McHugh
Our interest in pain management is rooted in the frequency of patient’s presenting to the ED with pain as well as the challenges physicians face in meeting patient expectations for pain control, while balancing the judicious use of analgesics. We have a complimentary interest in opioid use disorder driven by the ongoing opioid epidemic and critical importance of providing care for this patient population. Our research efforts in these areas have included: assessing the influence of ED-based physical therapy initiation on pain and use of analgesics, quantifying patterns of benzodiazepine and opioid co-prescription, improving education for patients about opioids at the time of a first prescription, assessing system barriers to ED Narcan distribution, evaluating the social construction of addiction, and investigating the link between pharmaceutical incentive payments to physicians to prescribe opioids and death.
Geriatric Emergency Medicine
Primary Researchers: Scott Dresden, Alex Lo, Lori Post
The goal of our geriatric emergency medicine research program is to better understand and optimize the challenging process of providing quality care that matches patients’ goals and needs to a geriatric population. We are additionally interested in elder abuse and exploitation detection. To this end our efforts have included: evaluating factors associated with admission of elderly patients, developing and evaluating innovative ED care systems with multidisciplinary teams to improve quality care delivery, evaluating geriatric patients health-related quality of life after an ED visit, and developing better screening tools for detecting elder abuse.
Patient Centered Communication
Primary Researchers: Danielle McCarthy, Amy Kontrick, Howard Kim
Our research in patient centered communication strives to to improve health care communication in the hectic and time limited ED setting, particularly for vulnerable patients with low-health literacy. Some of the topics of particular interest include risk communication about opioids, communication about expectations for symptom improvement with acute back pain, communication in the setting of diagnostic uncertainty, and communication about incidental findings on ED imaging studies.
Neurologic Emergencies
Primary Researchers: Peter Pruitt
The goal of our research program in neurologic emergencies is twofold. We have focused on pre-hospital management stroke, and particularly on how communication affects systems of care for patients with stroke. Some recent studies on this topic have included: an evaluation of the words used by patients during 9-1-1 calls for stroke and developing a community-partnered intervention to improve early recognition of stroke. Currently our neurologic research program is focused on intracranial hemorrhage, specifically hematoma. These projects have focused on determining patients who are at low risk for clinical decompensating and subsequently have developed a decision instrument to identify patients with low-risk subdural hematoma.
Global Health
Primary researchers: Jennifer Chan, Lori Post
The goal of our research program in global health is twofold. First, in the context of humanitarian disaster response we conduct transdisciplinary crisis informatics research with a focus on social media and health response. Research efforts in this area have included: the use of mathematical modeling of real-time field data in disaster contexts, evaluating the use of text message data by disaster response teams., and leveraging artificial intelligence and natural language processing to transform social media big data for disaster health response. Second, we study the topic of gender-based violence globally. This research has focused on female genital mutilation as well as outcomes of food insecurity at a global level and the relationship between food insecurity and violence.
Disease Surveillance
Primary researchers: Maryann Mason, Sarah Welch
Our research in disease surveillance is focused on understanding emerging trends in violent death and drug overdose that affect the health and well-being of the community. Dr. Maryann Mason serves as the director of two statewide surveillance systems: the Illinois Violent Death Reporting System (IVDRS) and the Statewide Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS). These systems pool unique data elements from multiple sources into usable, anonymous databases with a goal of ultimately developing prevention approaches.
External Grants
2020
- Abra Fant, MD, MS
Development of a Unified System of Assessment and Predictive Learning Analytics Utilizing Entrustable Professional Activities Across Emergency Medicine Residency Programs
American Medical Association Redesigning Residency Pilot Grant - Scott Dresden, MD MS (Site PI)
Emergency Medicine Palliative Care Access (EMPallA)
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) - Howard Kim, MD MS (Site PI)
Emergency Department-Initiated Buprenorphine Validation Network Trial (ED-INNOVATION)
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative (HEAL). - Maryann Mason, PhD
Communicating to turn data into action - Connecting Illinois Violent Death Reporting System (IVDRS) and Statewide Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) data to communities
Anonymously funded - Peter Pruitt, MD MS
Influence of Cooling duration on Efficacy in Cardiac Arrest Patients (ICECAP)
NIH Strategies to Innovate EmeRgENcy Care Clinical Trials Network (SIREN)
2019
- Scott Dresden, MD MS
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Geriatric Emergency Department Innovations
AHRQ R01 - Megan McHugh PhD
Manufacturing and the Opioid Epidemic
Manufacturing Institute - Howard Kim, MD MS (Site PI)
Safely Improving Emergency Diagnostic Testing Through Clinical Safe Harbors
AHRQ R18 - Patrick Lank, MD MS and Howard Kim, MD MS (Co-PIs)
Buprenorphine and Naloxone Hospital Demonstration Project
Illinois Public Health Institute, Alliance for Health Equity - Lori Post, PhD (Site PI)
Global Security Act: Policy Analysis and Measurement
U.S. Agency for International Development/Rutgers University - Lori Post, PhD (Subaward PI)
The Effect of the Opiod Crisis on the Farm Sector: Implications from the Rural Economy
U.S. Department of Agriculture/University of Florida - Lori Post, PhD
Tracking Guns Among Veterans
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs/VA Connecticute Healthcare System
2018
- Peter Pruitt MD MS
Improving Triage Precision in Patients with Subdural Hematoma
Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Foundation, Research Training Grant
2017
- Danielle McCarthy, MD MS (Site PI)
Promoting safe care transitions: Simulation-based mastery learning to improve communication in times of diagnostic uncertainty
AHRQ R18 - Howard Kim MD MS
Patient-Reported Outcomes Following ED Physical Therapy for Acute Low Back Pain
AHRQ K12 - Lori Post PhD
Field-generated innovations to address elder abuse, neglect and financial exploitation
Office for Victims of Crime
2016
- Howard Kim MD MS
ED Provider Perspectives on Analgesic Prescribing Choice: A focus on benzodiazepine-opioid co-prescription
Emergency Medicine Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse - Scott Dresden MD MS
Effects of a Dedicated Geriatric Nurse Liason intervention for Geriatric Patients in the Emergency Department
American Geriatric Society/National Institute of Aging GEMSTAR
2015
- Emilie Powell MS MD MBA
In Situ Simulation for Adoption of New Technology to Enhance Safety in Rural EDs
AHRQ R18
2014
- Danielle McCarthy MD MS
EHR Based Medication Complete Communication Strategy to Promote Safe Opioid Use
AHRQ R18 - Jennifer Chan MD MPH
GOALI: Improving Medical Preparedness, Public Safety and Security at Mass Events
National Science Foundation
2013
- Jennifer Chan MD MPH
Advancing Dynamic Relief Response: Integration of New Data Streams and Routing Models
National Science Foundation
Northwestern University Internal Grants
2019
- Danielle McCarthy MD, MS
Development and usability testing of an Uncertainty Discharge Document (UDD)
Davee Foundation - Howard Kim MD, MS
Evaluating the Effectiveness of ED-Initiated Physical Therapy for Acute Low Back Pain
Davee Foundation - Amy Kontrick, MD
Hepatic Steatosis and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Provider knowledge and practice in the ED
Davee Foundation - Alex Lo, MD, PhD
Planning grant: National analysis of physical and social factors associated with geriatric outdoor falls and pedestrian injuries.
Davee Foundation - Scott Dresden, MD, MS
Feasibility and pilot testing of the EDEN volunteer and community outreach program for persons living with dementia
Davee Foundation
2015
- Demetrios Kyriacou MD PhD
Ibuprofen versus Tylenol for the treatment of mild traumatic brain injury
Women’s Board of Northwestern
2014
- David Lu MD MSBE
The impact of provider wellness on quality of emergency care
Northwestern Memorial Hospital
2013
- Jennifer Chan MD MPH
Advancing Dynamic Relief Response: Integration of New Data Streams and Routing Models
National Science Foundation
2011
- David Salzman MD MS
Use of a simulation based mastery learning program to improve lumbar puncture performance in the Emergency Department
Northwestern Memorial Foundation
Many other areas of research are ongoing including emergency department operations, medical simulation, ultrasound, education and informatics.
Additionally, the faculty members in the Department of Emergency Medicine work closely other departments, centers and institutes throughout the Northwestern University system. These valued collaborations include: