This month, Dr. Michael Pulia celebrates ten years as faculty of the BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
He joined the then Division of Emergency Medicine within the UW Department of Medicine on September 1, 2012, transitioning from his prior role as faculty at the Loyola University Medical Center (LUMC) in Chicago, Illinois. He had previously obtained his medical degree from LUMC before completing his residency in emergency medicine at the University of Illinois–Chicago. An interest in changing his academic focus to emergency care research led him to the University of Wisconsin.
Ten years later, Dr. Pulia is a tenure-track assistant professor of emergency medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and an affiliate faculty of industrial and systems engineering with the UW-Madison College of Engineering. He serves as the medical director of emergency medicine antimicrobial stewardship and leads the Emergency Care for Infectious Diseases (EC-ID) health services research program, which aims to improve infectious disease diagnosis, infection control, and antimicrobial stewardship in the emergency department and downstream care settings.
As Dr. Pulia reflects on this milestone, we asked him to share some of his most memorable career highlights from the past decade at UW–Madison:
- Being named Director of Emergency Medicine Antibiotic Stewardship, one of the first emergency physicians in the United States to hold this role (2014).
- Receiving the Barry M. Farr Humanitarian Award from the MRSA Survivors Network in recognition of his efforts to raise public awareness of bacterial resistance related to the overuse of antibiotics (2015). Dr. Pulia was a speaker alongside MRSA survivors at the 7th Annual World MRSA Day and Global C. Diff Summit.
- Transitioning from CHS to Tenure faculty track with the Department of Emergency Medicine (2016).
- Receiving a K08 award from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) for his study titled “Improving Antibiotic Stewardship During the Treatment of Skin and Soft Tissue Infections in the Emergency Department: A Human Factors and Systems Engineering Approach” (2016).
- Receiving an Exceptional Mentorship Award from the UW-Madison Undergraduate Research Scholars Program in recognition of the impact he had on aspiring researchers (2020).
- Being honored with the Distinguished Service Award from the Wisconsin chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians (2021). This award recognized Dr. Pulia’s extraordinary contributions to the field of emergency medicine and his commitment to improving patient care through advancing antimicrobial stewardship in the ED.
- Receiving the BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship (2013, 2017, and 2021).
- Obtaining an R01 award from the AHRQ for his study titled “Characterizing the ImPact of COVID-19 on Antibiotic PreScribing in AcutE Care and IDentifying Resilient Stewardship Strategies (POISED)” (2021).
- Being selected as a National Academy of Medicine Scholar in Diagnostic Excellence and the inaugural NAM Scholar supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation with a focus on advancing diagnostic excellence and equity for older adults (2022).
- Completing his Ph.D. in Clinical Investigations from UW–Madison. Dr. Pulia successfully defended his dissertation, “Improving Antibiotic Stewardship During the Treatment of Skin and Soft Tissue Infections in the Emergency Department: A Human Factors and Systems Engineering Approach” (2022).
- Receiving Fellow designation from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). Fellowship in IDSA is one of the highest honors in the field of infectious diseases. It recognizes distinguished physicians and scientists from the United States and around the world who have achieved professional excellence and provided significant service to the profession (2022).