Emergency physicians are innate problem solvers. If they see a gap, they work to close it. When they identify a need, they figure out how to fill it. Those natural instincts, combined with a desire to help people, are the fuel for some of the most impactful clinical developments in emergency medicine.

Like most inventions, ACEP’s point-of-care (POC) app was born out of necessity. Expert panels had worked tirelessly to develop valuable bedside tools for emergency physicians related to atrial fibrillation, buprenorphine use, acute pain management, and more, but feedback showed that some were unable to access those web-based tools easily during an ED shift. Sometimes, it was because of a poor internet connection; other times, it was simply having no time to stop at a desktop computer to view the tool.

The usability gap was clear: We needed to improve access by circumventing the variability of the internet and making these POC tools easy to use on the move. Enter emPOC, ACEP’s new native app that takes five of the most-used bedside tools—AFIB (atrial fibrillation and flutter), BUPE (buprenorphine use in the emergency department), ADEPT (agitation in the elderly), MAP (management of acute pain), and iCar2e (suicide assessment)—and puts them in your pocket. Available in Apple’s App Store and Google Play, emPOC is a free app exclusively available to ACEP members.

AFib Assistance

Alexis LaPietra,
DO, FACEP

Christopher Baugh, MD, MBA, FACEP, chair of the ACEP Expert Panel on Atrial Fibrillation, has built a career on plugging gaps. He’s been interested in observational medicine, leadership, and finance from the beginning, earning his MBA while getting his medical degree. As he dug into observational medicine as an intern at Massachusetts General Hospital, he noticed “a problem everyone had,” which was that some patients need more time for treatments and diagnostic testing and end up getting admitted from the emergency department into inpatient services, even though inpatient services isn’t designed for those quick admissions. He felt like it wasn’t the best use of resources.

He started studying the patients who were admitted for short stays, and atrial fibrillation (AFib) jumped out as one of the most frequently encountered conditions. One thing led to another, and Dr. Baugh was soon conducting a pilot at his institution around developing a protocol to discharge AFib patients in a timelier manner. That pilot turned into a paper, and soon Dr. Baugh was tapped to lead ACEP’s Expert Panel on Atrial Fibrillation.