Richard Mark Levitan is an American emergency medicine physician and businessperson. He is a clinical professor of medicine at Dartmouth College and a practicing physician at the Littleton Regional Hospital. He also runs a company that creates materials and runs events to teach emergency airway management.

Richard M. Levitan
Born
EducationWilliams College
New York University School of Medicine (MD)
Occupation(s)Emergency medicine physician, businessperson
Medical career
InstitutionsLittleton Regional Hospital
Geisel School of Medicine
ResearchEmergency medicine

Early life and education edit

Levitan was born c. 1962 to Minna Osinoff and Milton Levitan in New York City.[1][2] He graduated from Horace Mann School and Williams College,[2] then completed a medical degree at New York University School of Medicine in 1994.[3] He completed an internship and residency at Bellevue Hospital under Lewis R. Goldfrank [Wikidata].[1] He is board certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine.[4]

Career and research edit

After his residency, Levitan practiced in Philadelphia where he taught how to in perform intubations.[1][better source needed] In 1994, he invented an imaging system for teaching intubation,[5] which his Airway Cam company now promotes.[3] Levitan's clinical interests includes emergency medicine.[4] As of 2020, he has worked as an emergency medicine doctor for 30 years.[5] He is a practicing physician at the Littleton Regional Hospital in Littleton, New Hampshire.[6] Levitan is a clinical professor of medicine at Dartmouth College's Geisel School of Medicine.[7] [obsolete source]

COVID-19 edit

In April 2020, Levitan volunteered for 10 days to help treat patients with COVID-19 at the emergency room of Bellevue Hospital in New York City.[8][5] He observed many patients with pneumonia and hypoxia (low oxygen levels in blood) who did not have typical symptoms of breathing problems such as chest discomfort or painful breathing. Levitan suggested in a New York Times op-ed that the widespread use of pulse oximeters could lead to earlier detection of serious breathing complications, and to better outcomes for patients with these complications.[5] Although the op-ed was covered in the news,[8][9] other doctors cautioned that early detection might lead to overtreatment, and that the role of early detection of hypoxia in treating COVID-19 still needed to be studied.[10] Levitan's hypothesis was supported by a prospective study appearing some months later in Academic Emergency Medicine,[11] for which Levitan was invited to write an accompanying piece of commentary.[12]

Selected works edit

  • Levitan, Richard M. (2004). Airway Cam Guide to Intubation and Practical Emergency Airway Management. Airway Cam Technologies. ISBN 978-1-929018-12-3.[13]
  • Levitan, Richard M. (2015). EMRA and AIRWAY-CAM Fundamentals of Airway Management. Emergency Medicine Residents' Association. ISBN 978-1-929854-39-4.[14]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Dwyer, Jim (April 3, 2020). "The Doctor Came to Save Lives. The Co-op Board Told Him to Get Lost". The New York Times. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Diane Edbril and Richard Levitan Are Married". New York Times. January 8, 1990. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  3. ^ a b "About Airway Cam". Airway Cam. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Richard M. Levitan MD - Littleton Regional Healthcare". littletonhealthcare.org. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d Levitan, Richard (April 20, 2020). "Opinion | The Infection That's Silently Killing Coronavirus Patients". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  6. ^ Koziol, John (April 15, 2020). "Littleton doctor returns from NYC with COVID-19 insights". Union Leader. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  7. ^ "Richard M Levitan, MD – Faculty Expertise Database – Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth". Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  8. ^ a b April 23, CBS News. "Device that checks oxygen levels could be early warning system for coronavirus, doctor says". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved April 24, 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Carbone, Christopher (April 23, 2020). "'Silent hypoxia' may be killing COVID-19 patients, but one doctor offers a possible solution". Fox News. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  10. ^ Couzin-Frankel, Jennifer (April 28, 2020). "Why don't some coronavirus patients sense their alarmingly low oxygen levels?". Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). doi:10.1126/science.abc5107. ISSN 0036-8075. S2CID 219024882.
  11. ^ Shah, Sonia; Majmudar, Kaushal; Stein, Amy; Gupta, Nita; Suppes, Spencer; Karamanis, Marina; Capannari, Joseph; Sethi, Sanjay; Patte, Christine (July 23, 2020). Kline, Jeffrey A. (ed.). "Novel Use of Home Pulse Oximetry Monitoring in COVID‐19 Patients Discharged From the Emergency Department Identifies Need for Hospitalization". Academic Emergency Medicine. 27 (8). Wiley: 681–692. doi:10.1111/acem.14053. ISSN 1069-6563. PMC 7323027. PMID 32779828.
  12. ^ Levitan, Richard M. (2020). Kline, Jeffrey A. (ed.). "Pulse Oximetry as a Biomarker for Early Identification and Hospitalization of COVID‐19 Pneumonia". Academic Emergency Medicine. 27 (8). Wiley: 785–786. doi:10.1111/acem.14052. ISSN 1069-6563. PMC 7323007. PMID 32779867. S2CID 220251166.
  13. ^ Reviews of the Airway Cam Guide to Intubation and Practical Emergency Airway Management
  14. ^ Hayes, Alisa (2016). "2015 EMRA/AIRWAY CAM: Fundamentals of Airway Management, 3rd Edition (review)". Annals of Emergency Medicine. 67 (5). Elsevier BV: 685. doi:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2016.02.029. ISSN 0196-0644.

External links edit