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It is an absolute honor and pleasure to serve as the new Editor In Chief of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine (JUCM). To begin, I want to thank Joshua Russell, MD, for his incredible work with the journal over the last 5 years. His effort, dedication, and endless hard work have forever changed the direction of JUCM and shaped its future. It is my sincere hope to continue his impactful work by publishing meaningful educational pieces and original research to advance the field of urgent care medicine.
I absolutely love urgent care medicine and am grateful that my career turned to this specialty 12 years ago. My passion for this field of medicine is what inspires my interest in advancing urgent care clinical care, advancing urgent care medical education, and advancing urgent care specific research. What we do is unique and powerful, meeting the patients where they are, addressing their needs efficiently and effectively, and not missing something critical while providing excellent care.
For those who do not know me, I am currently the Medical Director of Denver Health’s Peña Urgent Care Clinic in Denver, Colorado, where I have been the last 9 years. The clinic is a medium- to high-complexity/acuity Federally Qualified Health Center urgent care clinic with more than 27,000 visits per year within a safety-net healthcare institution. I am responsible for clinician supervision, clinic operations, nursing/support staff leadership supervision, and collaboration with the greater organization, while I still provide direct patient care. Additionally, I collaborate throughout the organization on other important urgent care topics to improve quality of care, including emerging infectious disease management, antimicrobial stewardship, positive prescriptive policies, value-based care, and improving healthcare access.
Additionally, I am an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine where I am actively involved in urgent care education of future clinicians, including medical students, medical residents, international physician learners, physician assistant students and nurse practitioner students. Over the last decade, I have clinically precepted more than 200 learners. I am also involved in the education of practicing clinicians having given 14 statewide/national webinars to over 2,800 participants in the last 4 years. I am actively involved in research in various urgent care topics including antibiotic stewardship, COVID-19 ambulatory therapeutics, quality improvement, patient-clinician relationship, and care of the underserved patient. I am an author of more than 20 peer reviewed publications in various scientific journals including JUCM and have received over $410,000 in grant funding to support several of my research projects. In my spare time, I enjoy time with my family and visiting the mountains to hike and ski.
As I wrap up my first piece as the Editor In Chief, I invite every one of you to help advance the specialty of urgent care medicine by contributing and publishing in JUCM. We are the only international peer-reviewed journal in urgent care medicine. You are already doing incredible work, so take a little extra time to share that work with the larger urgent care community. This allows us all to improve, learn, and grow from one another while celebrating our incredible successes! If you see an interesting case or present a case conference turn that into a JUCM Case Report article. If you give a medical topic presentation or create a clinical topic reference guide, turn that into a JUCM Clinical Topic Review article. If you design a clinical workflow that improves patient experience or implement a quality improvement project, turn that into a JUCM Brief Report article. If you are performing original research in urgent care, please submit that as a JUCM Original Research article.
The encouragement to submit to our journal is an open invitation. Additionally, please don’t hesitate to reach out and share your thoughts and ideas with me. Together we can continue to advance the specialty of urgent care medicine while expanding the depth and breadth of this incredible publication.