So You Want to Be a Better Peer Reviewer? (Co-sponsored by the Research Committee and Evidence-Based Healthcare & Implementation Interest Group)

This workshop will give an overview of peer-review and include an exercise to enhance basic critical appraisal skills while teaching how to perform excellent peer reviews. We will divide into small groups to review three medical research studies (one publishable, one that can be improved and one that is clearly not publishable). Those groups will select specific items that can be modified to improve each study and make them acceptable for publication. Following successful completion, participants will be paired with faculty mentors to improve their performance of peer reviews. 

Learning Objectives: 

Upon completion of this session, participants should be able to:
  • List the purposes of peer-review and importance of peer-review in the operation of medical journals
  • List characteristics of a well written peer-review
  • List the basic critical appraisal skills needed to perform excellent peer reviews and describe potential biases
  • List the common statistical errors found in research studies

Presenters: 

  • Dan Mayer, MD 
  • Lynn P. Roppolo, MD
  • Mark I. Langdorf, MD, MHPE
  • Rich H. Sinert, DO
  • Michael Gottlieb, MD
  • Adrienne N. Malik, MD
  • Joshua J. Davis, MD
  • Martin P. Wegman, MD, PhD, FACEP
  • Bryan G. Kane, MD, FACEP
  • Robert R. Ehrman, MD, MS
  • Richelle J. Cooper, MD, MSHS
Authors
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    Dan Mayer, MD

    Albany Medical College

    I have practiced as an Emergency Medicine physician for the past 43 years. I have been teaching for the past 37 years and practicing clinical Emergency Medicine for 35 years in a variety of hospital settings including academic urban emergency departments and rural community hospital emergency departments. I was an attending Emergency Medicine physician at Albany Medical Center Hospital from 1987 until my retirement in 2014. I also taught evidence-based medicine, medical decision-making and Emergency Medicine at Albany Medical College. I have taught medical students, other health science students, residents and attending physicians. Currently I teach EBM to dental residents through NYU Dental School. I have been board certified in Emergency Medicine since 1984. I am currently retired from active clinical practice and still active in publishing medical research in Emergency Medicine and teaching EBM to dental residents. I am an Associate Editor for the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine and JACEP Open. I was an associate editor for MedEdPORTAL for 12 years and still perform reviews for them. I have been an outstanding peer-reviewer for Academic Medicine, JACEP Open, Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, Academic Emergency Medicine, MedEdPORTAL, and Annals of Emergency Medicine. I have given many presentations on EBM, Team Based Learning, Diagnostic error, Peer review, and critical appraisal at many national and international meetings.

  • Lynn P. Roppolo, MD

    John Peter Smith Hospital; Adjunct Professor University of North Texas and Texas Christian University

    Dr. Roppolo is a retired Professor of Emergency Medicine from the University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW) and is currently core faculty and the Assistant Ultrasound Director at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth Texas. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Texas and Texas Christian University. She is a Senior Editor for the Journal of Emergency Medicine and has published numerous peer reviewed papers as first or senior author. She has assisted with coordinating the Research Learning Series for the last two years. Her scholarly and research interests involve anything related to ultrasound and managing acutely agitated patients to reduce physical assaults on ED staff. She is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, did her emergency medicine residency at the George Washington University and an emergency ultrasound fellowship at UTSW after being part of the residency leadership for 15 years. 

  • Mark I. Langdorf, MD, MHPE

    University of California, Irvine

    Mark I. Langdorf, MD MHPE, FACEP, FAAEM is Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine at the University of California, Irvine. After medical school at UC San Diego, he did an EM residency, a fellowship in medical education and the Master degree in Health Professions Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He served as Program Director for the emergency medicine residency for 10 years, Medical Director of the Level I Trauma Center Emergency Department for 18 years, and Division Chief and then Department Chair for 20 years. He served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development and CME, and Director of the Academy for Innovation in Medical Education at UC Irvine. He also served as Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education, responsible for the entire medical school teaching program at UC Irvine.

    He consults and speaks nationally and internationally to promote optimal trauma, stroke and emergency care. He is former Regional Faculty for the Advanced Cardiac Life Support Course and has taught Advanced Trauma Life Support. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine (WestJEM), an open-access peer review international journal, at www.westjem.com. This journal is the 5th ranked general emergency medicine journal in the world, with an Impact Factor of 3.908.

    He is the recipient of the Peter Rosen (renamed the Robert McNamara) Award for Academic Leadership from the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM). http://www.aaem.org/about-aaem/awards/prev-award-winners . He received the national Joe Lex Educator of the Year award from AAEM in 2023, and was awarded the Master of AAEM designation for outstanding service, scholarship, and advocacy to AAEM. https://www.aaem.org/about-us/our-values/awards/award-recipients (one recipient each year nationally). He served as Medical Staff Officer for 8 years, including President from 2019-21, and Immediate Past President (2021-23) of the Medical Staff (some 1400 physicians) at UC Irvine Medical Center.

  • Rich H. Sinert, DO

    NYC Health & Hospitals

    Dr. Richard SInert, DO, is the Vice-Chair In-Charge of Research and Full Professor of Emergency Medicine at Kings County Hospital NYC Health and Hospitals and State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences Univeristy. After completing Residency training in Internal Medicine at Kings County and a Nephrology Fellowship at Mt. Sinai Hospital, he returned to Kings County. Dr. Sinert helped develop an Emergency Medicine Residency training program at Kings County and University Hospital of Brooklyn. Recognizing Dr. Sinert’s contributions to the field of Emergency Medicine, The American Board of Emergency Medicine granted him board certification. As Research Director, Dr. Sinert has mentored many residents, fellows, and junior faculty into promising academic careers in education, NIH, and Pharmaceutical Industry-sponsored research. As an educator, Dr. Sinert developed and proctored a twelve-hour lecture course, Biostatics, at SUNY-Downstate. Dr. Sinert was an active Human Institutional Review Board member and Chaired the Animal Care and Use Committee for many years. In the last 15-20 years, Dr. Sinert has focused on evidence-based medicine and has written many systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Recently, Dr. Sinert was honored by the Society of Academic Emergency (SAEM) by being asked to co-head all the systematic reviews and meta-analyses for the GRACE (Guidelines for Reasonable and Appropriate Care in the Emergency Department )project on Syncope. Dr. Sinert is on the editorial board as Decision Editor for Academic Emergency Medicine Journal, the leading SAEM publication.
  • Michael Gottlieb, MD

    Michael Gottlieb, MD

    Rush University Medical Center

    Michael Gottlieb, MD is the Vice Chair of Research and Director of the Emergency Ultrasound Division at Rush University Medical Center. He is Past-Chair of the ACEP Ultrasound Section and Past-Chair of the AAEM Ultrasound Section. He has authored over 500 peer-reviewed publications and is an Editor for Academic Medicine, The Annals of Emergency Medicine, The Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, and Academic Emergency Medicine Education and Training, as well as the Social Media Editor for Academic Emergency Medicine. He is Past-Chair of the CORD Academy for Scholarship, Past-Chair of the SAEM Education Summit, Past-Chair of the CORD Education Committee, Past-Chair of the CORD Best Practices Subcommittee, and a nationally-recognized speaker and educator. His academic interests include medical education, ultrasound, infectious diseases, heart failure, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

  • Adrienne N. Malik, MD

    Director, Research Training

    The University of Kansas Medical Center

    Dr. Malik is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine (EM) at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) in Kansas City, KS, and is a core faculty member of the KU EM residency program. She received her MD from Saba University and completed her EM residency and ultrasound fellowship at DMC Sinai Grace Hospital in Detroit, MI. She currently serves as the Director of Research Training for the Department of Emergency Medicine, which includes overseeing trainee research projects and the bimonthly resident research workshop. Dr. Malik currently serves as PI for multiple investigator-initiated and industry-funded studies at KUMC and has been a member of the KU HSC IRB since 2020.

  • Joshua J. Davis, MD

    Assistant Professor, Clinical Medicine

    Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine

    Joshua Davis, MD, is an emergency physician in Wichita, KS, who teaches as a faculty member instructor at the Simulation Center University of Kansas School of Medicine - Wichita and a Course Director and Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine. He is the Assistant Medical Director for Ultrasound, Quality, and Research with Vituity in Wichita, KS. His research interests are broad and include emergency medicine clinical topics along with patient safety, interprofessional communication, handoff communication, procedural competency, and medical education. He has published over 75 peer reviewed articles, given multiple national presentations, and written several book chapters. He is involved in developing several national guidelines and curricula.

  • Martin P. Wegman , MD, PhD, FACEP

    Research Director

    HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital

    Martin Wegman, MD, PhD is a practicing emergency physician, population-health scientist, and research director at HCA FL Orange Park Hospital. He is also the inaugural Senior Research Fellow at the American College of Emergency Physicians where he provides strategic direction for the College's research portfolio, including the annual research conference, research training course and research networks. In these roles, he serves as principal investigator on multiple funded projects. 

    He completed his MD-PhD training program at the University of Florida, with graduate work in epidemiology and healthcare policy. He then completed a post-graduate clinical research fellowship at Yale School of Medicine and his emergency medicine residency training at Yale and the University of North Carolina. He has been published in Lancet Global Health, JAMA, Health Affairs, and Medical Care, and funded by the NIH, FDA, Doris Duke Foundation, and the AMA - with awards totaling in excess of $1M. He has expertise in research methodology, including quasi-experimental design and experience in analyzing large healthcare datasets to inform healthcare practice and policy.

  • Bryan G. Kane, MD, FACEP

    Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network

    Bryan Kane, MD is a Professor of Medicine with the University of South Florida. His teaching and research abilities were recognized with induction to the University's Academy of Distinguished Educators and to the Robert A. Good Honor Society. At Lehigh Valley Health Network, he is the Associate Program Director (Research) for the Emergency Medicine Residency. Currently the President of the Medical Staff, he has previously served on the Institutional Review Board as the Vice-Chair. A past Chair of SAEM's Evidence Based Healthcare Improvement IG, he led a consensus effort to evaluate the resident Scholarly Requirement. He currently serves on SAEM's Workforce Taskforce. He is active in CORD, having served as the Research Track Chair and on the COVID Taskforce. Within ACEP, he has authored textbook chapters, is on the PACEP Research Committee, and was named "PACEP Physician of the Year". He received his undergraduate degree at Yale, completed medical school at UPenn, and trained in Emergency Medicine at Yale. His educational passions are around Evidence Based Medicine, where he has designed a Journal Club tied to a validated EBM metric.

  • Robert R. Ehrman, MD, MS

    Wayne State University

    Dr. Ehrman is an Associate Professor (Clinician-Scholar) of Emergency Medicine at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. He received his medical degree from Northwestern University in 2007. He completed his Emergency Medicine Residency at Yale-New Have Hospital and a Fellowship in Emergency Ultrasound at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, IL. He currently serves as the Assistant Director of Emergency Ultrasound at Detroit Medical Center/Sinai-Grace Hospital and Assistant Director of the Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship at Wayne State University. Dr. Ehrman’s primary research interest is the use of point-of-care ultrasound in critical illness, primarily heart failure and sepsis. He has published multiple peer-reviewed papers on the use of advanced echocardiographic techniques by Emergency Physicians.

  • Richelle J. Cooper, MD, MSHS

    David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine

    Dr. Cooper is Professor of Emergency Medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine, and VIce Chair of Research for the UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine, at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center. Dr Cooper has been one of the methodology and statistics editors at Annals of Emergency Medicine since 2000, and is Executive Deputy Editor of Annals of Emergency Medicine. She has conducted research on, and lectured on multiple topics related to peer-review. Her research interests include the science of peer review and methodology, gender and healthcare disparities, social emergency medicine, and overuse and low value care. She serves on the American College of Emergency Physicians Research Committee.

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