“Growing threats to physician autonomy are one of the most significant stressors facing emergency physicians today, and a lack of due process protections is a significant part of the problem,” said ACEP President Alison J. Haddock, MD, FACEP. “These essential protections ensure fairness and allow emergency physicians to fully advocate for our patients without fear of retaliation or termination.”

The Physician and Patient Safety Act is an essential, commonsense, and straightforward effort that guarantees due process and ensures that emergency physicians have the same rights on the job as other physicians in the hospital. ACEP thanks Senators Roger Marshall, MD, (R-KS) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Representatives Raul Ruiz, MD, (D-CA) and John Joyce, MD, (R-PA) for their continued leadership on this important legislation.

ACEP Launches New Online Community

In early June, ACEP launched a new way to connect with your ACEP colleagues and the emergency medicine community. It’s the new engagED, your upgraded digital home to connect, collaborate, and thrive. This reimagined space was designed with you in mind. With the new engagED, you can:

• Find trusted resources shared by fellow emergency physicians.
• Get answers to questions about the business or practice of emergency medicine.
• Join conversations about hot topics, current events, or personal interests.
• Reconnect with your sections, member interest groups (MIGs), and other ACEP groups.
• Ask questions directly to ACEP leaders and staff.

We hope you like the new engagED and would love your feedback.

Virtual Reality with Classical Music Eases Tension-Type Headache

A study in the June 2025 issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine looked at 140 patients with tension-type headache and determined that a combination of virtual reality and classical music effectively managed pain and improved mood in these patients. The study suggested that this approach may reduce medication use and offered an innovative alternative for tension-type headache management, consistent with similar studies in literature.

Tension-type headache is the most common primary headache worldwide, significantly reducing individuals’ quality of life, according to the study. Although nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are commonly used for the pharmacologic treatment of tension-type headache, complementary and alternative treatment methods are gaining increasing importance. In this context, virtual reality technology stands out as a noninvasive option, particularly in pain management. This study investigated the analgesic effects and acute mood changes associated with virtual reality and classical music therapy in patients with tension-type headache.

Lead author Safa Dönmez, MD, and fellow researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial that involved 140 patients diagnosed with tension-type headache, divided into two groups. The control group received intravenous 25-mg dexketoprofen trometamol, whereas the intervention group was provided with virtual reality goggles to listen to classical music in a simulated forest environment in addition to this treatment. Pain intensity was assessed using the visual analog scale (VAS); mood changes were measured using a five-choice ordinal rating scale.