Clinical Excellence
September 10, 2009
Kaiser Permanente Emergency Physicians to Present at International Emergency Medicine Conference
When Gus Garmel, MD wants to gently remind his residents that it is important to treat the whole patient, he takes them on a short educational trip: to Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center’s Emergency Department waiting room. It’s an eye-opener, says Dr. Garmel. “Residents and students get so focused on what’s in front of them. They sometimes need to remember the human being they’re treating,” says Dr. Garmel, who is co-residency director of the Stanford/Kaiser Emergency Medicine Program and senior physician at the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Emergency Department.
It is Dr. Garmel’s passion for teaching that has resulted in his invitation to the prestigious Fifth Mediterranean Emergency Medicine Congress in Valencia, Spain, this month. There he will represent The Permanente Medical Group and the United States as the Chairperson of the Developing Resident Education Track, one of 16 tracks offered at the meeting. He has also been asked to give two lectures on topics he is well known for: mentoring and teaching.
Another Kaiser Permanente emergency physician, Arian Nachat, MD, also will be in Valencia talking about complementary medicine in the emergency room. Dr. Nachat is based at Kaiser Permanente’s Walnut Creek (Calif.) Medical Center. Both work for The Permanente Medical Group, whose 6,000 physicians exclusively provide care for Kaiser Permanente’s 3.3 million members in Northern California.
Emergency Medicine is a relatively new specialty: as recently as 40 years ago, critically ill patients in some places were “delivered” to emergency areas by families or in hearses, as these were the only vehicles that allowed patients to lie down. Most physicians in emergency rooms were inexperienced, often interns, if present at all. A body of emergency medicine knowledge to be mastered did not exist. Drs. Nachat and Garmel trained in a more professional era.
“For me, emergency medicine is the chance to help a patient in their worst situation,” says Dr. Nachat. Dr. Garmel agrees. “Being in a position to help patients and families at perhaps the worst time of their lives is one reason emergency medicine takes on such importance. And why it is such challenging work.”
More than 1,500 emergency medicine specialists from 75 countries are expected to attend the fifth annual Mediterranean Emergency Medicine Congress. The congress will bring together physicians from three emergency medicine associations: the European Society for Emergency Medicine, the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, and the Sociedad Espanola de Medicina de Urgencias y Emergencias.
Dr. Garmel published An Introduction to Clinical Emergency Medicine in 2005 with a former colleague, S.V. Mahadevan. This textbook received AMWA’s award for medical textbooks in 2006, and is required reading at approximately 75 percent of medical schools in the United States. Dr. Garmel published another textbook this year, with colleague and former mentee Dr. Joel Levis, titled Clinical Emergency Medicine Casebook. His first textbook, Career Planning Guide for Emergency Medicine is in its second edition and is a benefit for student and resident members of the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association.
“I’ve always appreciated great teachers and mentors, and how they’ve helped me in my personal and professional life. This meeting is one more opportunity for me to help others help others,” says Dr. Garmel. The Stanford/Kaiser Emergency Medicine Residency Program, which he helped establish in 1991, has graduated 145 women and men who serve as leaders and teachers in emergency departments worldwide.
