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Department of Emergency Medicine   

Douglas Rund, MD, Chair

Emergency Medicine supports two Emergency Care Units – one at Ohio State’s University Hospital and the other at Ohio State’s University Hospital East – that incorporate a Level 1 Trauma Center, a Fast Track area for minor illness or injury treatment, and a 20-bed Clinical Observation Unit. The 35 faculty, 36 residents and numerous department staff care for more than 100,000 patients per year.

Ongoing Research Programs

  • Mark Angelos, MD, directs the Laboratory Research Program based in Ohio State’s Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute. Angelos and his graduate students are studying oxidation-reduction mechanisms involved in myocardial reperfusion and functional recovery of the heart following cardiac arrest. This research, along with investigations into the origins of mitochondrial dysfunction during cardiac arrest, are designed to improve understanding of cellular reactions during reperfusion and will provide information allowing physicians to maximize recovery of the myocardium following cardiac arrest.
  • Jeffrey Caterino, MD, directs a funded clinical research program focused on care of geriatric patients in the Emergency Department (ED). Caterino also directs the Undergraduate Research Associate Program, which enables undergraduate students at Ohio State to work in the ED setting, screening and enrolling patients in research studies.
  • Michael Sayre, MD, leads a resuscitation research program to increase survival from sudden cardiac arrest in central Ohio and beyond by developing and researching strategies for treating this patient population. Sayre has been instrumental in making CPR simpler for the lay person through his work in developing the American Heart Association’s model of “Hands-Only CPR.” He co-chairs the Basic Life Support Committee for the International Liaison Committee on Research and is the chair-elect of the American Heart Association’s Emergency Cardiac Care Committee.
  • Brian Hiestand, MD, MPH, studies heart failure and is involved in several new treatments, including new assays using biomarkers designed to improve diagnosis and treatment of heart-failure patients in the emergency setting. Hiestand earned his MPH in 2008 and serves on the Biomedical Institutional Review Board.
  • Robert Guthrie, MD, operates a Clinical Trials Research Program to evaluate new drugs for the long-term care of patients with hypertension, cholesterol disorders and diabetes.
  • Take Heart Columbus™, directed by Michael Sayre, MD, is a local representation of Take Heart America. The goal is to improve the overall survival rate from out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest in Columbus, Ohio.

Research Accomplishments of 2008

  • Michael Cudnik, MD, MPH, expanded his research in the area of large database analysis for studying both trauma and sudden cardiac arrest in the prehospital setting. He received an American Heart Association grant to investigate the role of geospatial analysis in improving survival from sudden cardiac arrest.
  • Daniel Zelinski, MD, PhD, began a translational research program on stem cell proliferation following burn injury. The program is focused on identifying how stem cell activation can be directed and used to provide therapeutic benefit in patients with severe burn injury.
  • During 2008, Department faculty participated in 14 extramural grant awards totaling $983,959. These included a $308,000 grant from the American Heart Association to Michael Cudnik, MD, MPH, for a study titled “Improving Survival from Sudden Cardiac Arrest: A Regional Geospatial Analysis,” and $150,000 from the American Geriatrics Society to Jeffrey Caterino, MD, for a study titled “Elders in the ED, Outcomes and Processes of Care.” Some of the other grants went to:

    - Mark Angelos, MD, $121,000 from the American Heart Association for a study titled “Hypoxic Reperfusion and Induction of Myocardial Reactive Oxygen Species”
    - Mark Angelos, MD, $75,000 from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine for “Studies of Low Flow Reperfusion in the Heart”
    - Michael Sayre, MD, $67,781 from the Ohio Department of Public Safety for a study titled “Effect of Prehospital Therapeutic Hypothermia on Neurologic Outcome Following Cardiac Arrest”
    - Carlos Torres, MD, $50,000 from the Emergency Medicine Foundation for a study titled “Unraveling the Inotropic Effects of Pyruvate.”