Areas of Research

Primary Researchers: Howard Kim, Danielle McCarthy, Patrick Lank, Lori Post, 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.

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.

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.

Primary Researchers: Chris Richards, Peter Pruitt

The goal of our research program in neurologic emergencies is twofold.  First, 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.  In addition, our neurologic research program has focused on the topic of subdural 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.

Primary researchers: Jennifer Chan, Lori Post

Goals: 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.

• 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
• 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 

• Peter Pruitt MD MS
  Improving Triage Precision in Patients with Subdural Hematoma
  Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Foundation, Research Training Grant

• Danielle McCarthy, MD MS (Site PI) & David Salzman, MD, MEd
  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

• 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

• Emilie Powell MS MD MBA
  In Situ Simulation for Adoption of New Technology to Enhance Safety in Rural EDs
  AHRQ R18

• Danielle McCarthy MD MS
  EHR Based Medication Complete Communication Strategy to Promote Safe Opioid Use
  AHRQ R1
• Jennifer Chan MD MPH
  GOALI: Improving Medical Preparedness, Public Safety and Security at Mass Events
  National Science Foundation    

• Jennifer Chan MD MPH
  Advancing Dynamic Relief Response: Integration of New Data Streams and Routing Models
  National Science Foundation

• 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

• Demetrios Kyriacou MD PhD
  Ibuprofen versus Tylenol for the treatment of mild traumatic brain injury
  Women’s Board of Northwestern

• David Lu MD MSBE
  The impact of provider wellness on quality of emergency care
  Northwestern Memorial Hospital

• Jennifer Chan MD MPH
  Advancing Dynamic Relief Response: Integration of New Data Streams and Routing Models
  National Science Foundation

• David Salzman MD MS
  Use of a simulation based mastery learning program to improve lumbar puncture performance in the Emergency Department
  Northwestern Memorial Foundation