The Emergency Care for Infectious Diseases (EC-ID) research program at UW aims to improve the safety and quality of infectious disease management in the emergency department (ED) and downstream care settings. The primary focus of the program is the inappropriate use of antibiotics in healthcare settings, a global public health threat due to an association with increasing rates of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.
This issue is especially pressing following the outbreak of a global pandemic caused by COVID-19. Widespread use of antibiotics for COVID-19 has been reported worldwide, and the resulting risk of increased bacterial resistance is increasingly recognized as a parallel public health crisis to the ongoing pandemic.
Dr. Michael Pulia leads the EC-ID research program and is considered a subject matter expert in antimicrobial stewardship in emergency care settings. Please contact Dr. Pulia at mspulia@medicine.wisc.edu if you are interested in collaborating on research.
Archived News Items
Major Awards & Honors
- Dr. Pulia inducted into the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society (2024).
- Dr. Pulia received Best Overall Oral Presentation at the 32nd Annual Wisconsin Emergency Medicine Research Forum (March 2024).
- Dr. Pulia named a Fellow by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the nation’s leading infectious diseases professional society (August 2022). Fellowship in IDSA is one of the highest honors in the field of infectious diseases. Read more…
- Dr. Pulia named as a 2022-2023 National Academy of Medicine Scholar in Diagnostic Excellence. Dr. Pulia’s project will focus on improving diagnostic accuracy for older adult patients who present to the emergency department with suspected pneumonia. (June 2022). Read more…
- Dr. Pulia awarded an NIH Loan Repayment Program Award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. This highly competitive grant pays for medical school loans for exceptional researchers (2022).
- Dr. Pulia received the Best Faculty Oral Presentation Award at the 30th annual Wisconsin Emergency Medicine Research Forum for a study titled, “Comparing Interspecialty Diagnostic Confidence and Accuracy of Cellulitis Diagnosis” (April 2022).
- Dr. Pulia receives distinguished alumni award from Nazareth Academy (March 2022).
- Dr. Pulia awarded the 2021 Distinguished Service Award from the Wisconsin chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Read more…
- Dr. Pulia honored with the Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship 2012-13, 2016-17, and 2020-21 from the BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine.
- Dr. Pulia received the Best Overall Presentation Award at the 29th annual Wisconsin Emergency Medicine Research Forum (April 2021) for a study titled, “Comparison of Skin Surface Temperature Measurements between Patients with Cellulitis and Pseudocellulitis in the Emergency Department.”
- Dr. Pulia awarded an NIH Loan Repayment Program Award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. This highly competitive grant pays for medical school loans for exceptional researchers (2020).
- Dr. Pulia recognized by the UW-Madison Undergraduate Research Scholars program for his outstanding mentorship of an undergraduate scholar during the 2019-2020 academic year. In May 2020, Dr. Pulia received an Exceptional Mentorship Award from the program.
- Dr. Pulia received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Chicago-Illinois emergency medicine residency program (2015).
- Dr. Pulia honored with Barry M. Farr Humanitarian Award and recognized as Person of the Year at the 7th Annual World MRSA Day and Global C. Diff Summit in September 2015 for his contributions to MRSA awareness and education.
- Dr. Pulia honored with the AAEM Young Educator of the Year Award (2013).
Leadership Positions
- Dr. Pulia serves as medical director of the Emergency Medicine Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at UW Health.
- Dr. Pulia serves as the director of the Emergency Care for Infectious Diseases research program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
- Dr. Pulia invited to serve on the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases ED Antibiotic Stewardship Guideline Committee.
- Dr. Pulia invited to serve on the 2020-2021 term of the International Dysphagia Research Society COVID-19 Task Force.
- Dr. Pulia invited to serve on the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Medical Student Research Committee.
- Dr. Pulia is co-chair of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Emergency Medicine/Urgent Care Antimicrobial Stewardship Subcommittee.
- Dr. Pulia chaired the American Academy of Emergency Medicine’s Antibiotic Stewardship Task Force from 2014-2016, representing emergency medicine at the White House Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship and the United Nations Global Antibiotic Resistance Challenge.
- Dr. Pulia served as an invited expert for the Delphi procedure on a recent paper that developed quality metrics for ED antibiotic stewardship. The Delphi procedure is a method of congregating expert opinion through a series of iterative questionnaires with the goal of coming to a group consensus.
Media Mentions
- Dr. Pulia invited as guest on Breakpoints: The SIDP Podcast episode #81 “Making the Right Choice Easy: Antimicrobial Stewardship in the Emergency Department”
(June 2023). - Dr. Pulia was interviewed for an article in Infectious Disease Special Edition, “Frailty Screening Predicts CAP Severity in Older Patients” published 17 February 2023. IDSE is a quarterly, international publication in print that presents educational review articles on the latest medical developments and practice guidelines.
- Dr. Pulia was interviewed by several Wisconsin news organizations and uwhealth.org during U.S. Antibiotic Awareness Week (Nov. 18-24, 2022). View a full list of his media appearances.
- Dr. Pulia interviewed by The Lancet Infectious Diseases regarding the 2021 Surviving Sepsis Campaign update. Click here to read the editorial (January 2022). The Lancet Infectious Diseases is the world-leading infectious diseases journal.
- Dr. Pulia’s article, “COVID-19: An Emerging Threat to Antibiotic Stewardship in the Emergency Department,” was featured in an August 2020 issue of the Center for Infectious Disease and Research Policy – Antimicrobial Stewardship Project (CIDRAP-ASAP) newsletter.
- Dr. Pulia published in ACEP Now. “5 Tips to Improve Antibiotic Stewardship in Your Emergency Department,” published February 2020.
- Dr. Pulia interviewed by The Times of London. “Nearly a third of prescriptions for antibiotics in the US may be given to patients who have not been examined by a doctor,” published February 2020.
- Dr. Pulia provided commentary in The Wall Street Journal. “Patients Often Get Antibiotics Without a Doctor Visit, Study Finds,” published 3 February 2020.
- Dr. Pulia penned an article for the International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine March 2019 newsletter, titled “Custom-built antibiotic stewardship for the ED.” ISICEM is organized by the Departments of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine of Erasme University Hospital in Brussels, Belgium.
- Dr. Pulia wrote a featured article for Common Sense, American Academy of Emergency Medicine’s bi-monthly member magazine, titled “AAEM Works for Antibiotic Stewardship on the National Stage,” published July/August 2015.