Logo

Log In Sign Up |  An official publication of: American College of Emergency Physicians
Navigation
  • Home
  • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
  • Clinical
    • Airway Managment
    • Case Reports
    • Critical Care
    • Guidelines
    • Imaging & Ultrasound
    • Pain & Palliative Care
    • Pediatrics
    • Resuscitation
    • Trauma & Injury
  • Resource Centers
    • mTBI Resource Center
  • Career
    • Practice Management
      • Benchmarking
      • Reimbursement & Coding
      • Care Team
      • Legal
      • Operations
      • Quality & Safety
    • Awards
    • Certification
    • Compensation
    • Early Career
    • Education
    • Leadership
    • Profiles
    • Retirement
    • Work-Life Balance
  • Columns
    • ACEP4U
    • Airway
    • Benchmarking
    • Brief19
    • By the Numbers
    • Coding Wizard
    • EM Cases
    • End of the Rainbow
    • Equity Equation
    • FACEPs in the Crowd
    • Forensic Facts
    • From the College
    • Images in EM
    • Kids Korner
    • Medicolegal Mind
    • Opinion
      • Break Room
      • New Spin
      • Pro-Con
    • Pearls From EM Literature
    • Policy Rx
    • Practice Changers
    • Problem Solvers
    • Residency Spotlight
    • Resident Voice
    • Skeptics’ Guide to Emergency Medicine
    • Sound Advice
    • Special OPs
    • Toxicology Q&A
    • WorldTravelERs
  • Resources
    • ACEP.org
    • ACEP Knowledge Quiz
    • Issue Archives
    • CME Now
    • Annual Scientific Assembly
      • ACEP14
      • ACEP15
      • ACEP16
      • ACEP17
      • ACEP18
      • ACEP19
    • Annals of Emergency Medicine
    • JACEP Open
    • Emergency Medicine Foundation
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Medical Editor in Chief
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Awards
    • Authors
    • Article Submission
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright Information

The Best ACEP Now Articles of 2020

By Jeremy Samuel Faust, MD, MS, MA, FACEP | on December 15, 2020 | 0 Comment
Opinion
  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Print-Friendly Version

As Medical Editor in Chief of ACEP Now, feedback is never in short supply. When you love something we printed, I hear often about it. When you don’t? Well, I always hear about that. Many of our most popular articles come from your ideas, whether suggested via email or in person. (This is one reason I really miss in-person conferences!) But one thing can’t be denied: people vote with their clicks. The top 10 most read ACEP Now articles this year reflect your needs and interests, and they fall into three categories: COVID-19, equity, and “everything else.”

You Might Also Like
  • American Board of Emergency Medicine Articles Available in ACEP Reading Room
  • ACEP’s COVID-19 Center Curates the Content You Need
  • All LLSA Articles Now Available Free
Explore This Issue
ACEP Now: Vol 39 – No 12 – December 2020

The four COVID-19 articles trace our collective journey through this crisis. An early article gave background on SARS-CoV-2 itself, and described the initial patients who were considered “persons under investigation.” Highly informative, the article now reads like a historical document; just 10 months later, just about everyone we encounter with symptoms (and even many without symptoms) are now considered at risk. We also contextualized COVID-19 versus previous years’ pneumonia and flu rates, providing an important window into the magnitude of the pandemic. We then covered pros and cons of various types of coronavirus testing. And while we have subsequently covered all manner of COVID-19 treatments, unsurprisingly, our most popular article on the topic described the safety of ibuprofen for children. (Pediatric pieces always get a lot of attention.)

The other major story this year—which would have been the lead story in any other year—was medicine’s reckoning with equity, racism, and sexism in medicine. After I accepted the position as Medical Editor in Chief, the very first thing I did was to create a recurring column called “Equity Equation.” Our article on combatting microagressions in the workplace (written by one of the founding curators of the Equity Equation column, Dr. Uché Blackstock) has quickly become an important online resource. 

And while the “Me Too” movement is no longer a new one, our field continues to address those and other systemic issues related to sexism. A powerful piece shining light on the subtle and not-so-subtle disadvantages (entitled “It’s Not a Female Resident Problem”) faced by women in medicine pairs well with the microaggressions article—and both should be required reading.

Then there’s everything else. What could be more representative of emergency medicine as a field than the simple fact that we confronted two major crises and still treated our usual complement of patients and their diverse problems? We have to keep up with new literature and stay fresh on bread-and-butter care that we might encounter on any given shift. 

The opioid epidemic rages on. With more overdoses comes more naloxone. And with more naloxone comes more precipitated withdrawal. We covered how to manage it humanely. Meanwhile, the year would not be complete without some new literature to muddy the waters on stroke management. As Dr. Ken Milne showed us, the evidence for alteplase for acute ischemic stroke continues to underwhelm—especially when re-analysis takes into account the baseline differences between patients in the control and intervention arm of the major trials.

The award for “article that taught me the most medicine” goes to Dr. Anton Helman’s “IV vs. PO: Which Antibiotics Are Better for Common ED Infections?” Sure, I knew that oral antibiotics are safe for a wide variety of infections. But bacteremia? You have to be impressed. 

And last but not least, just to drive home the point that emergency physicians must be ready for anything, an article on the finer points of managing fibular fractures. I thought I was smart for remembering that we are supposed to get “manual stress views” for assessing ligament stability in Weber B ankle fractures. But it turns out that gravity and weight-bearing stress radiographs are enough! 

What will 2021 teach us? You tell me! My ears and inbox are open to your ideas. Send your suggestions to acepnow@acep.org.

Topics: coronavirusCOVID-19DiversityFrom the EditorStroke

Related

  • Dr. Joe Sachs and “The Pitt” Are Redefining Public Health Education Through Storytelling

    June 11, 2025 - 0 Comment
  • June 2025 News from the College

    June 5, 2025 - 0 Comment
  • Thrombolytics in Stroke: Moving Beyond Controversy to Comprehensive Care

    December 7, 2024 - 0 Comment

Current Issue

ACEP Now May 03

Download PDF

Read More

About the Author

Jeremy Samuel Faust, MD, MS, MA, FACEP

Jeremy Samuel Faust, MD, MS, MA, FACEP, is Medical Editor in Chief of ACEP Now, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in department of emergency medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. Follow him on twitter @JeremyFaust.

View this author's posts »

No Responses to “The Best ACEP Now Articles of 2020”

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*
*

Wiley
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Advertise
  • Cookie Preferences
Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 2333-2603