Frank LoVecchio is an American

emergency medicine Emergency medicine is the medical specialty concerned with the care of illnesses or injuries requiring immediate medical attention. Emergency physicians (or "ER doctors") specialize in providing care for unscheduled and undifferentiated pa ...

physician, medical toxicologist, academic and researcher.LoVecchio, Frank (2021). "Frank LoVecchio". asu.edu/. Arizona State University. Retrieved 14 October 2021."
news.asu.edu/.

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

. " He is the medical director of Clinical Research at College of Health Solutions, the Director of Good Samaritan Regional Poison Center, the Research Director of Maricopa Medical Center Emergency Medicine Program, and

clinical professor Clinical professor, sometimes known as professor of practice, is an academic appointment made to a member of a profession who is associated with a university or other academic body, and engages in practical (clinical) instruction of students (e ...

Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine (AZCOM) is a school of osteopathic medicine in Glendale, Arizona, part of Midwestern University. It grants the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) degree. AZCOM was established in 1995 when the Board of ...

. He also serves as an attending physician at

Valleywise Health Valleywise Health (formerly Maricopa Integrated Health System), is a public hospital and healthcare system based in Phoenix with Community Heath Centers located throughout Maricopa County, Arizona. Valleywise Health includes the Valleywise Healt ...

Phoenix Children's Hospital Phoenix Children's Hospital is a freestanding pediatric acute care children's hospital located in Phoenix, Arizona. The hospital has 484 pediatric beds and is affiliated with the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. Phoenix C ...

, and in the Department of Medical Toxicology at Banner University Medical Center.New medical director joins ASU to advance clinical and translational research"
news.asu.edu/.

(11 January 2021). ""Dr. Frank LoVecchio". valleywisehealth.org/

. 2021. Retrieved 14 October 2021.. " LoVecchio has authored various scholarly publications and book chapters. His research includes ketone levels in the lungs and blood, and pesticide exposures and scorpion stings in young children. He has served as primary or co-investigator on several

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

grants. He is one of the founding members of the Center for Toxicology and Pharmacology Education and Research of the

University of Arizona College of Medicine A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. He is also associated with several professional organizations and societies, including American Board of Addiction Medicine, American College of Medical Toxicologists,

American College of Emergency Physicians The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is a professional organization of emergency medicine physicians in the United States. ACEP publishes the '' Annals of Emergency Medicine and the Journal of the American College of Emergency Physi ...

, Emergency Medicine Resident Association, Society of Academic Emergency Medicine, American Society of Forensic Examiners, and

American Osteopathic Association The American Osteopathic Association (AOA) is the representative member organization for the more than 197,000 osteopathic medical doctors ( D.O.s) and osteopathic medical students in the United States. The AOA is headquartered in Chicago, Illi ...

. He has been a keynote speaker for numerous conferences, and has contributed on various media outlets.

Education

LoVecchio studied at

State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

and received his bachelor's degree in General Science in 1988. He earned his

Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO or D.O., or in Australia DO USA) is a medical degree conferred by the 38 osteopathic medical schools in the United States. DO and Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees are equivalent: a DO graduate may become li ...

degree from

New York College of Osteopathic Medicine The New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYIT-COM) is a private medical school located primarily in Old Westbury, New York. It also has a degree-granting campus in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Founded in 1977, NYIT-COM is an ...

in 1992 and a

Master of Public Health The Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH), Master of Medical Science in Public Health (MMSPH) and the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH), International Masters for Health Leadership (IMHL) are interdisciplinary profes ...

from

Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school at Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Hong Kong entrepreneur Chan Tseng-hsi in 2014 following a US$350 ...

in 2002. He then completed his internship at St. Barnabas Hospital, affiliated with

Cornell Medical College Weill Cornell Medicine (; officially Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University), originally Cornell University Medical College, is the medical school of Cornell University, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in Ne ...

and New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1993, his residency at

Mount Sinai School of Medicine The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City, New York, United States. The school is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sina ...

Integrated Residency in Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center & City Hospital Center at Elmhurst in 1996, and his fellowship in Medical Toxicology at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in 1998. He is also board certified in Addiction Medicine and Medical Forensics.

Career

LoVecchio joined New York City Emergency Medical Service Academy as a lecturer in 1995. In 2007, he held an appointment as clinical professor at

. He also held administrative appointments in his career. In 1998, he was appointed by Good Samaritan Regional Poison Center as an Associate Medical Director."Meet our core faculty - Full time faculty"
maricopaemergencymedicine.com/. Maricopa Emergency Medicine Residency. Retrieved 17 October 2021. He was associated with a program in Clinical Effectiveness at

from 1999 till 2002, and with Federal Emergency Medical Assistance Program from 1998 till 2005. He served as Resident Research Director and then held appointment as a vice-chair of Department of Emergency Medicine at Maricopa Medical Center, University of Arizona College of Medicine 2009 to 2019. He was named medical director of Clinical Research at College of Health Solutions and is one of the founders of the Translational Research Center at Arizona State University.

Research

LoVecchio's research mainly focuses on

ketone In organic chemistry, a ketone is an organic compound with the structure , where R and R' can be a variety of carbon-containing substituents. Ketones contain a carbonyl group (a carbon-oxygen double bond C=O). The simplest ketone is acetone ( ...

levels in the lungs and blood, and pesticide exposures and scorpion stings in young children. He has advocated in the legal arena regarding medical toxicology, emergency medicine, addiction, product safety and public health issues, and has also worked as an on-air expert on topics including,

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

opioid crisis The opioid epidemic, also referred to as the opioid crisis, is the rapid increase in the overuse, misuse or abuse, and Drug overdose, overdose deaths attributed either in part or in whole to the class of drugs called opiates or opioids since th ...

, and COVID-19. He was featured in

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

’

Drugs, Inc. ''Drugs, Inc.'' is an American documentary style television series on the National Geographic Channel that explores global narcotics production and trafficking. The series features drug dealers, recreational users, and addicts, as well as pro ...

Flesh-Eating

Krokodil ''Krokodil'' ( rus, Крокодил, p=krəkɐˈdʲil, a= Ru-крокодил.ogg, ) was a Humor magazine , satirical magazine published in the Soviet Union and later Russia. The first issue was published on 27 August 1922 as the satirical supp ...

episode. He has received funding to study

suicide prevention Suicide prevention is a collection of efforts to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is often preventable, and the efforts to prevent it may occur at the individual, relationship, community, and society level. Suicide is a serious public healt ...

respiratory disease Respiratory diseases, or lung diseases, are pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange difficult in air-breathing animals. They include conditions of the respiratory tract including the trachea, bronchi, ...

CPR Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure used during cardiac or respiratory arrest that involves chest compressions, often combined with artificial ventilation, to preserve brain function and maintain circulation until sp ...

sepsis Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage of sepsis is followed by suppression of the immune system. Common signs and s ...

, and

MRSA Methicillin-resistant ''Staphylococcus aureus'' (MRSA) is a group of gram-positive bacteria that are genetically distinct from other strains of ''Staphylococcus aureus''. MRSA is responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. ...

infections.

COVID-19 pandemic

In a February 2021

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

documentary following Valleywise healthcare workers, LoVecchio gave positive remarks on the expected future

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

situation in Arizona. In September of that year, he was part of a study that conducted a test-negative case-control investigation regarding the effectiveness of

Moderna COVID-19 vaccine The Moderna COVID19 vaccine, sold under the brand name Spikevax, is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by the American company Moderna, the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the Biomedical Advanced ...

among U.S. health care personnel.

Emergency Medicine

In 2014, LoVecchio conducted a

multicenter trial A multicenter research trial is a clinical trial that involves more than one independent medical institutions in enrolling and following trial participants. In multicenter trials the participant institutions follow a common treatment protocol and fo ...

in the

tertiary care Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delive ...

setting, and found out that protocol-based

resuscitation Resuscitation is the process of correcting physiological disorders (such as lack of breathing or heartbeat) in an Acute (medicine), acutely ill patient. It is an important part of intensive care medicine, anesthesiology, trauma surgery and emerg ...

of patients in whom septic shock was diagnosed in the emergency department did not improve outcomes. In his paper published in 2010, he investigated the survival rate of patients with out-of-hospital

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest (also known as sudden cardiac arrest CA is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. When the heart stops beating, blood cannot properly Circulatory system, circulate around the body and the blood flow to the ...

using compression-only CPR (COCPR) compared with conventional CPR. Results of his study showed that layperson compression-only CPR was associated with increased survival in comparison to conventional CPR and no bystander CPR in this setting with public endorsement of chest compression–only CPR. LoVecchio also investigated the influence of the infecting

pathogen In biology, a pathogen (, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a Germ theory of d ...

on the hospital length of stay (LOS) for acute

bronchiolitis Bronchiolitis is inflammation of the small airways also known as the bronchioles in the lungs. Acute bronchiolitis is caused by a viral infection, usually affecting children younger than two years of age. Symptoms may include fever, cough, run ...

. He determined that RSV was more frequently detected virus in children hospitalized with bronchiolitis, as compared to HRV; which was detected in one-quarter of the children. Furthermore, he studied

procalcitonin Procalcitonin (PCT) is a peptide precursor of the hormone calcitonin, the latter being involved with calcium homeostasis. It arises once preprocalcitonin is cleaved by endopeptidase. It was first identified by Leonard J. Deftos and Bernard A. ...

-guided use of

antibiotic An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting pathogenic bacteria, bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the therapy ...

s in context of

lower respiratory tract infection Lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) is a term often used as a synonym for pneumonia but can also be applied to other types of infection including lung abscess and acute bronchitis. Symptoms include shortness of breath, weakness, fever, cou ...

. In 1997, The dogma of avoiding

analgesic An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic, antalgic, pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of drugs used for pain management. Analgesics are conceptually distinct from anesthetics, which temporarily reduce, and in s ...

s in patients with acute

abdominal pain Abdominal pain, also known as a stomach ache, is a symptom associated with both non-serious and serious medical issues. Since the abdomen contains most of the body's vital organs, it can be an indicator of a wide variety of diseases. Given th ...

was challenged, and in one of the first studies addressing this issue, LoVecchio and his colleagues, concluded that physical examination does change after the administration of analgesics in patients with acute abdominal pain. He also conducted a study to determine the impact of ED-initiated intervention in terms of subsequent

suicidal behavior Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or acad ...

Medical Toxicology

LoVecchio published a paper in 2008 focused on how

poison control center A poison control center is a medical service that is able to provide immediate, free, and expert treatment advice and assistance over the telephone in case of exposure to poisonous or hazardous substances. Poison control centers answer questions ...

s decrease emergency healthcare utilization costs, and determined that the home management by Banner Poison Control Center provided large monetary savings to residents in comparison to dollars received in state support. He also focused his study on the centruroides sculpturatus and regarded it as the only scorpion native to the United States whose venom produces life‐threatening illness. He studied the distribution of the severity grades following scorpion envenomations, the time to deterioration, the onset of clinical signs and symptoms, and side effects regarding the

antivenom Antivenom, also known as antivenin, venom antiserum, and antivenom immunoglobulin, is a specific treatment for envenomation. It is composed of antibodies and used to treat certain venomous bites and stings. Antivenoms are recommended only if ...

treatment in children of particular age. LoVecchio reviewed poison center data charts from January 2007 through December 2009, and discussed the outcomes of unintentional

beta-blocker Beta blockers, also spelled β-blockers, are a class of medications that are predominantly used to manage abnormal heart rhythms ( arrhythmia), and to protect the heart from a second heart attack after a first heart attack (secondary prevention) ...

calcium channel blocker Calcium channel blockers (CCB), calcium channel antagonists or calcium antagonists are a group of medications that disrupt the movement of calcium () through calcium channels. Calcium channel blockers are used as antihypertensive drugs, i.e., as ...

overdoses among patients. Furthermore, he conducted a 5-year retrospective poison control center review and explored the outcomes regarding

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between ...

exposure in 598 patients.

Selected bibliography

* A randomized trial of protocol-based care for early septic shock ProCESS Investigators New England Journal of Medicine 2014 370 (18), 1683-1693 * Mansbach, J. M., Piedra, P. A., Teach, S. J., Sullivan, A. F., Forgey, T., Clark, S., ... & MARC-30 Investigators. (2012). Prospective multicenter study of viral etiology and hospital length of stay in children with severe bronchiolitis. Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine, 2012 166(8), 700–706. * Chest compression–only CPR by lay rescuers and survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest B.J. Bobrow, D.W. Spaite, R.A. Berg, U. Stolz, A.B. Sanders, K.B. Kern, et al. Jama 2012 304 (13), 1447-1454 * Procalcitonin-guided use of antibiotics for lower respiratory tract infection D.T. Huang, D.M. Yeally, MR et al. New England Journal of Medicine 2018 379 (3), 236-249 * Trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole versus placebo for uncomplicated skin abscess D.A. Talan, W.R. Mower, A. Krishnadasan, F.M. Abrahamian, F. LoVecchio, N England Journal of Medicine 2016 374, 823-832 * Suicide prevention in an emergency department population: the ED-SAFE study I.W. Miller, C.A. Camargo, S.A. Arias, et al. 2017 JAMA psychiatry 74 (6), 563-570 * Effectiveness of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine among U.S. Health Care Personnel New England Journal of Medicine 2021 Pilishvili T., et al.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:LoVecchio, Frank American medical researchers 21st-century American physicians Living people Stony Brook University alumni Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health alumni 20th-century American physicians New York Institute of Technology alumni National Institutes of Health people American emergency physicians American people of Italian descent American medical academics American osteopathic physicians Year of birth missing (living people)