Did you know ACEP has 30 committees and 40 sections working year-round to advance emergency medicine? Led by emergency physician volunteers, these groups focus on specific niches or clinical topics within the field and regularly produce new policies, webinars, and resources to benefit ACEP members. Here are a few recent highlights:

New Clinical Policies: Opioids and Pneumonia

The Clinical Policies Committee, led by Chair Stephen J. Wolf, MD, FACEP, has published two new clinical policies this year that can be viewed here.

• Critical Issues in the Management of Adult Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department with Community-Acquired Pneumonia (October 2020)
• Critical Issues Related to Opioids in Adult Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department (June 2020)

On deck: The committee is currently drafting revisions to the appendicitis, acute heart failure syndromes, and mild traumatic brain injury clinical policies.

Task Forces Address Sepsis, Excited Delirium

In April, the multispecialty task force convened by ACEP in 2019 published its new sepsis guidelines, “Early Care of Adults with Suspected Sepsis in the Emergency Department and Out-of-Hospital Environment: A Consensus-Based Task Force Report,” in Annals of Emergency Medicine. The report covers principles of early sepsis recognition, initial care steps in the ED and out-of-hospital environments, titration of care, and related controversies. It has been endorsed by the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians, the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine, the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine, the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors, the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association, the Emergency Nurses Association, the National Association of EMS Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, and the Society of Hospital Medicine. ACEP’s sepsis point-of-care tool, DART, was updated to reflect these new guidelines. Visit acep.org/sepsis for more information. The guidelines were authored by Donald M. Yealy, MD; Nicholas M. Mohr, MD, MS; Nathan I. Shapiro, MD; Arjun Venkatesh, MD, MBA; Alan E. Jones, MD; and Wesley H. Self, MD, MPH.

Up next: The Excited Delirium Task Force is working on revisions to the 2009 White Paper Report on Excited Delirium Syndrome.

Ultrasound Section Launches New and Improved Sonoguide

A subcommittee of ACEP’s Emergency Ultrasound Section recently published work on the new Sonoguide: Ultrasound Guide for Emergency Physicians. Led by co-authors Dasia Esener, MD, MS, FACEP, and Gabriel Rose, DO, the Sonoguide was initially developed for those with little ultrasound experience, but it includes advanced concepts and skills as well. View the guide at acep.org/sonoguide.