Dr. Robert Rodriguez Recognized with ACEP’s 2024 Award for Outstanding Contribution in Research

By Rachel Narozniak, MA on August 12, 2024

The Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, is pleased to announce that Robert Rodriguez, MD, Vice Chair for Clinical Research and Professor of Emergency Medicine, is the recipient of the American College of Emergency Physicians' (ACEP's) 2024 Award for Outstanding Contribution in Research. This prestigious award is presented annually to an ACEP member who “has made a significant contribution to research in emergency medicine.”

Dr. Rodriguez will be honored at the ACEP24 Scientific Assembly in Las Vegas, Nevada, from September 29 to October 2. There, he will be recognized for his efforts to improve emergency health care delivery — especially for underserved populations — through the high-impact, pragmatic research that he has led over the course of his 30-year-plus career in emergency medicine.

Staunch Advocacy for Equitable Care

Since his first publication in 1993, Dr. Rodriguez, a second-generation Mexican-American from the border city of Brownsville, Texas, has sought to improve health care for underserved populations, especially those whose primary or only health care occurs in the emergency department (ED).1 In recent years, he has led national research teams in efforts to address disparities in COVID-19 and influenza vaccine uptake through ED-centered vaccination measures.  

Throughout his career, Dr. Rodriguez has received extramural grant funding from several federal health organizations, including R01 grant funding from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Funding from the NIAID and CDC supported his seminal work, the multicenter, cluster-randomized “PROmotion of COvid-19 VA(X)ccination in the Emergency Department – PROCOVAXED” trial.  

Results (published in JAMA Internal Medicine) showed that COVID-19 messaging platforms delivered in safety net EDs led to greater vaccine acceptance and uptake in underserved populations.2 Dr. Rodriguez presented the findings at the plenary sessions of several national meetings, including ACEP’s Research Forum and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities’ (NIMHD’s) meetings. This work helped inform the White House, CDC, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and ACEP’s development of guidelines for the provision of COVID-19 vaccines to underserved populations in EDs across the U.S.   

Dr. Rodriguez’s team then turned its attention to influenza vaccine hesitancy, with the goal of increasing uptake through ED-based interventions. Their findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine Evidence in 2024.3 A staunch advocate for equitable care, he has also led multiple networks examining emergency care access for immigrant and homeless person populations. Three of his publications are among the most highly cited emergency medicine papers on this topic.4-6  

National Research Leadership

Over the years, Dr. Rodriguez’s research and leadership has resulted in real-world changes in ED care. As the only emergency medicine physician on the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board, Dr. Rodriguez collaborated with his fellow advisory board members in efforts to address COVID-19 health care disparities, as well as the pandemic’s impact on EDs and intensive care units.  

His impact in emergency medicine also encompasses trauma imaging decision instruments. Following his receipt of an R01 grant from the CDC (2011-2015), Dr. Rodriguez assumed leadership of the National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (NEXUS), which seeks to develop decision rules for selective imaging in blunt trauma patients. Under his oversight, the NEXUS team of investigators at 12 trauma centers across the U.S. has prospectively enrolled more than 38,000 patients in trauma imaging decision rule research. The NEXUS team has won multiple awards at national research meetings for this work and has published 38 original research manuscripts in major medical journals to date, including JAMA Surgery, Annals of Emergency Medicine, Academic Emergency Medicine, Injury, and PLoS Medicine.7-12

Recognizing the rise of opioid-related deaths in EDs, Dr. Rodriguez is also co-leading a team examining the use of naloxone (adjunctive to other resuscitation measures) in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. His team has published multiple papers on this topic (i.e., in Resuscitation, Annals of Internal Medicine, and JAMA Network Open).13-16

Emanating Impact  

With 150-plus original research manuscript publications to his credit, Dr. Rodriguez has a prolific track record of work spanning a wide range of topics, commensurate with his eclectic expertise in emergency medicine. These include critical care medicine, trauma care, and public health, among others.  

As of August 2024, he has authored 39 publications, mostly as lead or senior author, in the premier emergency medicine journals Annals of Emergency Medicine and Academic Emergency Medicine. Over the past three years, eight of his publications have had top 5% Altmetric scores.2, 17-20

Beyond his role as an investigator, Dr. Rodriguez has promoted emergency medicine research in many other ways. He previously served an institutional review board (IRB) chairman and as Editor-in-Chief and Senior Associate Editor of several emergency medicine journals. Under his leadership, UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine research funding has grown to a budget of over $34 million.

Yet of all his engagements in the field of emergency medicine, Dr. Rodriguez considers his services as a research mentor to be his most important contribution to research. With a "Sí, se puede" (“Yes, you can”) attitude and a special focus on trainees from backgrounds historically underrepresented in medicine, he has mentored more than 210 students, residents, fellows, and junior faculty over the past 25 years.  

He is proud that 53 of his research mentees have garnered research funding, and nearly all of them have presented their work at local and national research meetings (resulting in 80-plus abstracts), not to mention co-authorship in peer-reviewed, original research publications (90-plus manuscripts). Notably, all of Dr. Rodriguez’s undergraduate mentees have gone on to matriculate in medical school or other allied health professional training programs, and many of his resident physician and fellow advisees have earned appointments as academic medicine faculty.  

Dr. Rodriguez has received multiple awards for his mentorship at UCSF, including the:

He also received awards for his service from UnidosUS (Latinx Excellence Award) and the California Chapter of ACEP (Humanitarian of the Year).

 

References

  1. Rodriguez RM, Baraff LJ. Emergency department immunization of the elderly with pneumococcal and influenza vaccines. Ann Emerg Med. 1993 Nov;22(11):1729-32. doi: 10.1016/s0196-0644(05)81313-7. PMID: 8214864.  
  2. Rodriguez RM, Nichol G, Eucker SA, et al; PROCOVAXED Study Network. Effect of COVID-19 vaccine messaging platforms in emergency departments on vaccine acceptance and uptake: A cluster randomized clinical trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2023 Feb 1;183(2):115-123. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.5909. PMID: 36574256; PMCID: PMC9856883.  
  3. Rodriguez RM, Eucker SA, Rafique Z, et al. Promotion of influenza vaccination in the emergency department. NEJM Evid. 2024 Apr;3(4):EVIDoa2300197. doi: 10.1056/EVIDoa2300197. Epub 2024 Mar 26. PMID: 38776635.
  4. Maldonado CZ, Rodriguez RM, Torres JR, Flores YS, Lovato LM. Fear of discovery among Latino immigrants presenting to the emergency department. Acad Emerg Med. 2013 Feb;20(2):155-61. doi: 10.1111/acem.12079. PMID: 23406074.
  5. Rodriguez RM, Fortman J, Chee C, Ng V, Poon D. Food, shelter and safety needs motivating homeless persons' visits to an urban emergency department. Ann Emerg Med. 2009 May;53(5):598-602. doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2008.07.046. Epub 2008 Oct 5. PMID: 18838193.
  6. Rodriguez RM, Torres JR, Sun J, et al. Declared impact of the US President's statements and campaign statements on Latino populations' perceptions of safety and emergency care access. PLoS One. 2019 Oct 30;14(10):e0222837. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222837. PMID: 31665147; PMCID: PMC6821049.
  7. Rodriguez RM, Anglin D, Langdorf MI, et al. NEXUS chest: validation of a decision instrument for selective chest imaging in blunt trauma. JAMA Surg. 2013 Oct;148(10):940-6. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2013.2757. Erratum in: JAMA Surg. 2013 Dec;148(12):1086. PMID: 23925583.
  8. Mower WR, Akie TE, Morizadeh N, et al. Blunt head injury in the elderly: analysis of the NEXUS II injury cohort. Ann Emerg Med. 2024 May;83(5):457-466. doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2024.01.003. Epub 2024 Feb 10. PMID: 38340132.
  9. Gupta M, Mower WR, Rodriguez RM, Hendey GW. Validation of the pediatric NEXUS II head computed tomography decision instrument for selective imaging of pediatric patients with blunt head trauma. Acad Emerg Med. 2018 Jul;25(7):729-737. doi: 10.1111/acem.13431. Epub 2018 Jun 8. PMID: 29665151.
  10. Rodriguez RM, Henderson TM, Ritchie AM, et al. Patient preferences and acceptable risk for computed tomography in trauma. Injury. 2014 Sep;45(9):1345-9. doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2014.03.011. Epub 2014 Mar 27. PMID: 24742979.  
  11. Rodriguez RM, Langdorf MI, Nishijima D, et al. Derivation and validation of two decision instruments for selective chest CT in blunt trauma: a multicenter prospective observational study (NEXUS Chest CT). PLoS Med. 2015 Oct 6;12(10):e1001883. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001883. PMID: 26440607; PMCID: PMC4595216.
  12. Mower WR, Gupta M, Rodriguez R, Hendey GW. Validation of the sensitivity of the National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (NEXUS) head computed tomographic (CT) decision instrument for selective imaging of blunt head injury patients: An observational study. PLoS Med. 2017 Jul 11;14(7):e1002313. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002313. PMID: 28700585; PMCID: PMC5507397.  
  13. Rodriguez RM, Tseng ZH, Montoy JCC, et al. NAloxone CARdiac Arrest Decision Instruments (NACARDI) for targeted antidotal therapy in occult opioid overdose precipitated cardiac arrest. Resuscitation. 2021 Feb;159:69-76. doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2020.12.009. Epub 2021 Jan 7. PMID: 33359417.  
  14. Rodriguez RM, Montoy JCC, Repplinger D, et al. Occult overdose masquerading as sudden cardiac death: From the POstmortem Systematic InvesTigation of Sudden Cardiac Death Study. Ann Intern Med. 2020 Dec 1;173(11):941-944. doi: 10.7326/M20-0977. Epub 2020 Aug 11. PMID: 32777183.  
  15. Dillon DG, Wang RC, Shetty P, et al. Efficacy of emergency department calcium administration in cardiac arrest: A 9-year retrospective evaluation. Resuscitation. 2023 Oct;191:109933. doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2023.109933. Epub 2023 Aug 9. PMID: 37562663; PMCID: PMC10529187.  
  16. In press (JAMA). Citation to come.
  17. Rodriguez RM, Medak AJ, Baumann BM, et al. Academic emergency medicine physicians' anxiety levels, stressors, and potential stress mitigation measures during the acceleration phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Acad Emerg Med. 2020 Aug;27(8):700-707. doi: 10.1111/acem.14065. Epub 2020 Jul 21.
  18. Harries AJ, Lee C, Jones L, et al. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical students: a multicenter quantitative study. BMC Med Educ. 2021 Jan 6;21(1):14. doi: 10.1186/s12909-020-02462-1. PMID: 33407422; PMCID: PMC7786337.
  19. Rodriguez RM, Torres JR, Chang AM, et al; REVVED UP Investigators. The rapid evaluation of COVID-19 vaccination in emergency departments for underserved patients study. Ann Emerg Med. 2021 Oct;78(4):502-510. doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2021.05.026. Epub 2021 May 31. PMID: 34272104; PMCID: PMC8165082.
  20. Montoy JCC, Ford J, Yu H, et al; Innovative Support for Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infections Registry (INSPIRE) Group. Prevalence of symptoms ≤12 months after acute illness, by COVID-19 testing status among adults - United States, December 2020-March 2023. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2023 Aug 11;72(32):859-865. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7232a2. PMID: 37561663; PMCID: PMC104