MUSC Emergency Medicine Resident Presents Malaria Research Findings

Congratulations to Lacey Menkin, MD, a resident in the MUSC Emergency Medicine Division, who presented at the American College of Emergency Physicians Scientific Assembly regarding her team’s research findings on the diagnosis of malaria at a clinic in Uganda. Despite a 2010 edict from the World Health Organization requiring confirmatory testing of suspected malaria before treatment, the majority of health care providers in rural Sub-Saharan Africa continue to treat suspected malaria using only clinical judgment. This is also the case with a large number of short-term mission teams, including those from the U.S. Menkin and her team set out to determine if rapid diagnostic testing is necessary in areas where there is high prevalence of malaria, and to determine the acumen of U.S. health care providers in the clinical diagnosis of malaria. The findings suggested that U.S. clinicians on short-term medical mission trips were not accurate in their diagnosis of malaria based on clinical suspicion alone, supporting the premise that rapid point of care diagnostic testing should be used in future medical mission trips.

“I had the unbelievable honor and a privilege to represent the Emergency Medicine Division at MUSC and Palmetto Medical Initiative while presenting our research,” said Menkin.