Letter from the Chair

It is my pleasure to serve as the new Chair for ACEP’s Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Section. Thank you to Dr. Richard Keuski for serving as Chair for the past two years. I have been a member of the section for 11 years, and have served as the Secretary and Newsletter Editor, Councillor, and Chair Elect. I hope to continue to help the section and ACEP by improving education about hyperbaric medicine, advocating for our specialty, and positioning our section as a valuable resource for all section members.

We had a productive section meeting this past fall at ACEP24. Minutes are available on the ACEP section website, but highlights include changes in ABPM and ABEM longitudinal assessment, advocating for critical care access, recognizing that hyperbaric medicine specialization is now a qualification to become a flight surgeon, and the election of new officers. Congratulations to Drs. Christopher Allen, Bob Sanders, and Abby Winn, our new Chair Elect, Alternate Councillor, and Secretary-Newsletter Editor respectively!  We also had a presence at the EMRA fellowship fair to help expose residents to hyperbaric medicine as a potential subspecialty.

Looking forward to this year, the section will continue to focus on education, advocacy, and serving as a resource to members. The section has already been able to advocate against a proposed revision by CMS that would have had a negative impact on hyperbaric payments, and we were able to recruit the President of ACEP to sign on to a letter requesting the revision be overturned. This year, we also look forward to the new Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Clinical Policy update from ACEP.

Thank you to all the members for entrusting me to serve as your section chair. If there are any issues that you feel the section can help with, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Warm Regards,
Stephen

Stephen Hendriksen, MD
Chair, Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Section
American College of Emergency Physicians