Beckman Coulter Sponsored Webinar: Risk of Sepsis? Bacterial or Viral? Decoding Host Response Biomarkers to Advance Infection and Sepsis Care

Richard Hamilton, MD, MBA, FAAEM, FACEP, FACMT, is Professor and Chair, Emergency Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine. He is the Executive Medical Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at St Christopher's Hospital for Children. He was formerly the Regional Associate Dean for the Crozer Keystone Campus and EM System Chair of the Crozer Keystone Health System. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann University College of Medicine. Dr. Hamilton trained at the San Diego Naval Hospital and the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute, completed an EM Residency at the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center / Albert Einstein, and did his Toxicology Fellowship at New York City Poison Control Center / NYU Bellevue.

Dr. Hamilton's research interests include PFAS toxicity, Manganese, water quality, synthetic cannabinoids, MRSA, pharmacology, toxicology, applying game theory to medicine, aerospace medicine, and commercial space travel. He has received awards for his teaching and research and is a widely published author of manuscripts, textbooks, book chapters, and patents.

Dr. Hamilton is a former EM Program Director and has been EM Chair at Drexel University since 2006. He edited the Tarascon Adult Emergency Pocketbook and Tarascon Pocket Pharmacopeia, which was sold in 17 countries and has been translated into Spanish and Japanese. Dr. Hamilton is a Fellow of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, the American College of Medical Toxicology, the American College of Emergency Physicians, and an Associate Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association. He is the Past President of the Association of Academic Chairs in Emergency Medicine and the Pennsylvania College of Emergency Physicians. Dr. Hamilton blogs at www.emtoxcast.com and www.thetoxfiles.com. 

Dr. Peter Antkowiak is the Vice Chair of Clinical Operations in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Baystate Health. In this role, he oversees a network of five emergency departments that care for over 220,000 patients annually, including Baystate Medical Center, an academic Level 1 Trauma Center with one of the busiest EDs on the east coast and a dedicated pediatric ED. He is the director of the EM Operations & Administrative Fellowship at Baystate. His primary research interests include ED throughput optimization, applications of novel diagnostics and AI in EM, and understanding physician resource-utilization. He also serves as an expert medical consultant for biotech and healthcare AI startups.

Prior to this role, Dr. Antkowiak was Chief of Emergency Medicine at UMass Harrington Healthcare, overseeing two EDs with a combined 40,000+ patient visits per year staffed by Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians. During his five-year tenure as Chief, Dr. Antkowiak recruited and led a team of physicians that significantly enhanced quality and operational metrics while concurrently optimizing practice revenues. Dr. Antkowiak was responsible for developing long-term strategy, managing the practice budget, and led all clinical operations including overseeing physician directors in Ultrasound, Education, EMS, Operations, and Quality/Patient Safety.

Dr. Antkowiak was previously an academic faculty member at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. He chaired the Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians EM Program & Faculty Development committee, and led several network initiatives focused on faculty retention, scheduling principles, and community to tertiary care patient transfer processes.

Dr. Antkowiak studied neuroscience and economics at McGill University, he then earned an MD from Albany Medical College. After residency at Maine Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine, he completed a fellowship in ED Operations & Administration and an MPH in Healthcare Management & Policy at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Melissa Naiman, PhD, EMT-B, is a Medical Director for Beckman Coulter Diagnostics. She trained in chemistry and has a PhD in Public Health with a research interest in technology adoption in healthcare settings. She spent her early career in an academic research center at the University of Illinois that developed medical devices and diagnostics, including identifying novel biomarkers for military health applications. Today she focuses on accelerating innovation in host response-based diagnostic strategies targeting acute infection and sepsis management.