Scholars@Duke
Stephanie Ann Eucker

Stephanie Ann Eucker

Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Emergency Medicine
stephanie.eucker@duke.edu
2301 Erwin Road, DUMC 3096, Durham, NC 27710
2301 Erwin Road, DUMC 3096, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications

Long COVID Illness: Disparities in Understanding and Receipt of Care in Emergency Department Populations.

Journal Article Ann Emerg Med · March 2025 STUDY OBJECTIVE: Most long coronavirus disease (long COVID) studies rely on traditional surveillance methods that miss underserved populations who use emergency departments (EDs) as their primary health care source. In medically underserved ED populations, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Participant experiences receiving acupuncture for acute musculoskeletal pain in an emergency department: A qualitative evaluation.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2025 OBJECTIVE: Acupuncture is an evidence-based pain treatment in clinic settings, but its optimal delivery has not been established in emergency departments (EDs). As part of an adaptive pragmatic randomized controlled trial of ED acupuncture for acute muscul ... Full text Link to item Cite

Opioid Treatment Is Associated with Recurrent Healthcare Visits, Increased Side Effects, and Pain.

Journal Article West J Emerg Med · November 2024 INTRODUCTION: Pain is a major driver of visits to the emergency department (ED). Clinicians must consider not only the efficacy of treatment options but also subsequent healthcare utilization and patient-centered outcomes such as side effects from prescrib ... Full text Link to item Cite

An Adaptive Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial of Emergency Department Acupuncture for Acute Musculoskeletal Pain Management.

Journal Article Ann Emerg Med · October 2024 STUDY OBJECTIVE: Acute musculoskeletal pain in emergency department (ED) patients is frequently severe and challenging to treat with medications alone. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of adding E ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effectiveness of a bivalent mRNA vaccine dose against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection among U.S. Healthcare personnel, September 2022-May 2023.

Journal Article Vaccine · April 11, 2024 BACKGROUND: Bivalent mRNA vaccines were recommended since September 2022. However, coverage with a recent vaccine dose has been limited, and there are few robust estimates of bivalent VE against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19). We estimated VE ... Full text Link to item Cite

A qualitative study of perceived barriers and facilitators to point-of-care ultrasound use among Veterans Affairs Emergency Department providers.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2024 Consistent point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) use and retention is difficult to achieve, with prior studies citing a lack of provider training, credentialed ultrasound users, and image review as contributing factors. We aimed to assess user feedback on a POC ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of a hypothetical COVID-19 vaccine mandate on parental likelihood to vaccinate children: Exploring school-related concerns and vaccination decision-making.

Journal Article Vaccine · December 7, 2023 OBJECTIVE: We assessed the impact of a hypothetical school-entry COVID-19 vaccine mandate on parental likelihood to vaccinate their child. METHODS: We collected demographics, COVID-19-related school concerns, and parental likelihood to vaccinate their chil ... Full text Link to item Cite

COVID-19 Booster Vaccine Hesitancy in the Emergency Department.

Conference Ann Emerg Med · October 2023 STUDY OBJECTIVE: Little is known about COVID-19 booster vaccine hesitancy. We sought to determine the uptake of booster vaccines, as well as the prevalence of and reasons for booster hesitancy in emergency department (ED) patients. METHODS: We performed a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Associations Between Management Pathway and Opioid Prescriptions for Patients Entering the Emergency Department With Neck and Back Pain.

Journal Article Mayo Clin Proc Innov Qual Outcomes · October 2023 OBJECTIVE: To determine associations between post-emergency department (ED) management pathways and downstream opioid prescriptions in patients seeking care for incident neck and/or back pain. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We identified patients seeking first-time ... Full text Link to item Cite

Barriers and Best Practices for the Use of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Emergency Medicine.

Journal Article Ann Emerg Med · July 2023 Patient-reported outcome measures are commonly used in clinical trials and have been incorporated into routine clinical care in select specialties but have not been widely implemented in emergency medicine research and clinical care. We describe measuremen ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effect of COVID-19 Vaccine Messaging Platforms in Emergency Departments on Vaccine Acceptance and Uptake: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial.

Journal Article JAMA internal medicine · February 2023 ImportanceLarge segments of the US population's primary health care access occurs in emergency departments (EDs). These groups have disproportionately high COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and lower vaccine uptake.ObjectiveTo determine whether ... Full text Cite

Perspectives of COVID-19 vaccine-hesitant emergency department patients to inform messaging platforms to promote vaccine uptake.

Journal Article Acad Emerg Med · January 2023 OBJECTIVES: Efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccine acceptance must consider the critical role of the emergency department (ED) in providing health care to underserved patients. Focusing on patients who lacked primary care, we sought to elicit the perspectives ... Full text Link to item Cite

Acupuncture for acute musculoskeletal pain management in the emergency department and continuity clinic: a protocol for an adaptive pragmatic randomised controlled trial.

Journal Article BMJ Open · September 23, 2022 INTRODUCTION: Chronic musculoskeletal pain causes a significant burden on health and quality of life and may result from inadequate treatment of acute musculoskeletal pain. The emergency department (ED) represents a novel setting in which to test non-pharm ... Full text Link to item Cite

Factors Associated With Parental Acceptance of COVID-19 Vaccination: A Multicenter Pediatric Emergency Department Cross-Sectional Analysis.

Journal Article Ann Emerg Med · August 2022 STUDY OBJECTIVE: During the delta surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, we sought to identify characteristics and beliefs associated with COVID-19 vaccination acceptance in parents of pediatric emergency department (ED) patients. METHODS: We conducted a ... Full text Link to item Cite

PROmotion of COvid-19 VA(X)ccination in the Emergency Department-PROCOVAXED: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Trials · April 21, 2022 BACKGROUND: We conducted in-depth interviews to characterize reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in emergency department (ED) patients and developed messaging platforms that may address their concerns. In this trial, we seek to determine whether provisi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Facemasks: Perceptions and use in an ED population during COVID-19.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2022 STUDY OBJECTIVE: Facemask use is associated with reduced transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Most surveys assessing perceptions and practices of mask use miss the most vulnerable racial, ethnic, and socio-economic populations. These same populations have suffered ... Full text Link to item Cite

Willingness to use nonpharmacologic treatments for musculoskeletal pain in the emergency department: a cross-sectional study.

Journal Article Pain Rep · 2022 OBJECTIVES: Pain is an individual experience that should incorporate patient-centered care. This study seeks to incorporate patient perspectives toward expanding nonpharmacologic treatment options for pain from the emergency department (ED). METHODS: In th ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Use of the consolidated framework for implementation research in a mixed methods evaluation of the EQUIPPED medication safety program in four academic health system emergency departments.

Journal Article Front Health Serv · 2022 BACKGROUND: Enhancing Quality of Prescribing Practices for Older Adults Discharged from the Emergency Department (EQUIPPED) is an effective quality improvement program initially designed in the Veterans Administration (VA) health care system to reduce pote ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Moving toward patient-centered care in the emergency department: Patient-reported expectations, definitions of success, and importance of improvement in pain-related outcomes.

Journal Article Acad Emerg Med · November 2021 OBJECTIVES: Musculoskeletal pain is a common emergency department (ED) presentation, and patient-centered care may improve quality of life, treatment satisfaction, and outcomes. Our objective was to investigate the expectations, definitions of success, and ... Full text Link to item Cite

Early prescribing outcomes after exporting the EQUIPPED medication safety improvement programme.

Journal Article BMJ Open Qual · November 2021 Enhancing quality of prescribing practices for older adults discharged from the Emergency Department (EQUIPPED) aims to reduce the monthly proportion of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) prescribed to older adults discharged from the ED to 5% or ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

The Rapid Evaluation of COVID-19 Vaccination in Emergency Departments for Underserved Patients Study.

Journal Article Ann Emerg Med · October 2021 STUDY OBJECTIVE: Emergency departments (EDs) often serve vulnerable populations who may lack primary care and have suffered disproportionate COVID-19 pandemic effects. Comparing patients having and lacking a regular source of medical care and other ED pati ... Full text Link to item Cite

United States Emergency Department Use of Medications with Pharmacogenetic Recommendations.

Journal Article West J Emerg Med · September 23, 2021 INTRODUCTION: Emergency departments (ED) use many medications with a range of therapeutic efficacy and potential significant side effects, and many medications have dosage adjustment recommendations based on the patient's specific genotype. How frequently ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Higher daily pain severity after emergency department visits is associated with lower return-to-work rates.

Journal Article Am J Emerg Med · July 2021 BACKGROUND: Pain can impair functional status, including a patient's ability to return to work. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there was an association between pain levels and return-to-work status during the first 4 days post-ED discha ... Full text Link to item Cite

Increasing Naloxone Prescribing in the Emergency Department Through Education and Electronic Medical Record Work-Aids.

Journal Article Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf · June 2021 BACKGROUND: Emergency department (ED) visits for opioid overdose continue to rise. Evidence-based harm reduction strategies for opioid use disorder (OUD), such as providing home naloxone, can save lives, but ED implementation remains challenging. METHODS: ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sequential implementation of the EQUIPPED geriatric medication safety program as a learning health system.

Journal Article International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · September 2020 ObjectivesTo present the three-site EQUIPPED academic health system research collaborative, which engaged in sequential implementation of the EQUIPPED medication safety program, as a learning health system; to understand how the organizations work ... Full text Cite

Depression and Functional Outcomes in Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department With Low Back Pain.

Journal Article Acad Emerg Med · August 2020 OBJECTIVES: Low back pain (LBP) is a common reason for patients to present to emergency departments (EDs). Our objective was to describe the associations between depressive symptoms, pain severity, and functional impairment up to 3 months after initial ED ... Full text Link to item Cite

Emergency Department Interventions for Older Adults: A Systematic Review.

Journal Article J Am Geriatr Soc · July 2019 OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effect of emergency department (ED) interventions on clinical, utilization, and care experience outcomes for older adults. DESIGN: A conceptual model informed, protocol-based systematic review. SETTING: Emergency Department (ED) ... Full text Link to item Cite

Are Nonpharmacologic Pain Interventions Effective at Reducing Pain in Adult Patients Visiting the Emergency Department? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Journal Article Acad Emerg Med · August 2018 Featured Publication OBJECTIVES: Pain is a common complaint in the emergency department (ED). Its management currently depends heavily on pharmacologic treatment, but evidence suggests that nonpharmacologic interventions may be beneficial. The purpose of this systematic review ... Full text Link to item Cite

Endothelial cell Pannexin1 modulates severity of ischemic stroke by regulating cerebral inflammation and myogenic tone.

Journal Article JCI Insight · March 22, 2018 Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the US; however, there currently exists only one effective acute pharmacological therapeutic intervention. Purinergic signaling has been shown to regulate vascular function and pathological p ... Full text Link to item Cite

Quality of the Development of Traumatic Brain Injury Clinical Practice Guidelines: A Systematic Review.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2016 Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death worldwide and is increasing exponentially particularly in low and middle income countries (LMIC). To inform the development of a standard Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) for the acute management of ... Full text Link to item Cite

White matter tract-oriented deformation predicts traumatic axonal brain injury and reveals rotational direction-specific vulnerabilities.

Journal Article Biomech Model Mechanobiol · August 2015 A systematic correlation between finite element models (FEMs) and histopathology is needed to define deformation thresholds associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI). In this study, a FEM of a transected piglet brain was used to reverse engineer the ran ... Full text Link to item Cite

FEM-predicted regional tissue strains aligned with the white matter tracts predict axonal injury

Journal Article 2012 38th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference, NEBEC 2012 · June 29, 2012 Finite element modeling (FEM) is frequently used to study the biomechanical effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Utility of these models in predicting tissue injury depends on close correspondence between calculated mechanical response parameters and t ... Full text Cite

Finite element model predictions of intracranial hemorrhage from non-impact, rapid head rotations in the piglet.

Journal Article Int J Dev Neurosci · May 2012 Clinicians are charged with the significant task of distinguishing between accidental and inflicted head trauma. Oftentimes this distinction is straightforward, but many times probabilities of injuries from accidental scenarios are unknown making the diffe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neurocritical care monitoring correlates with neuropathology in a swine model of pediatric traumatic brain injury.

Journal Article Neurosurgery · November 2011 BACKGROUND: Small-animal models have been used in traumatic brain injury (TBI) research to investigate the basic mechanisms and pathology of TBI. Unfortunately, successful TBI investigations in small-animal models have not resulted in marked improvements i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Physiological and histopathological responses following closed rotational head injury depend on direction of head motion.

Journal Article Exp Neurol · January 2011 Rotational inertial forces are thought to be the underlying mechanism for most severe brain injuries. However, little is known about the effect of head rotation direction on injury outcomes, particularly in the pediatric population. Neonatal piglets were s ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development of a fluorescent microsphere technique for rapid histological determination of cerebral blood flow.

Journal Article Brain Res · April 22, 2010 The purpose of this study was to develop a more efficient fluorescent microsphere method to facilitate the rapid use of the histological technique and to enable its use in large tissue regions. Using fluorescent plate/slide imaging technology and automated ... Full text Link to item Cite

In situ deformations in the immature brain during rapid rotations.

Journal Article J Biomech Eng · April 2010 Head trauma is the leading cause of death and debilitating injury in children. Computational models are important tools used to understand head injury mechanisms but they must be validated with experimental data. In this communication we present in situ me ... Full text Link to item Cite

Diffuse optical monitoring of cerebral hemodynamics in piglet with traumatic brain injury

Conference JOURNAL OF CEREBRAL BLOOD FLOW AND METABOLISM · October 1, 2009 Link to item Cite

Diffuse optical monitoring of hemodynamic changes in piglet brain with closed head injury.

Journal Article J Biomed Opt · 2009 We used a nonimpact inertial rotational model of a closed head injury in neonatal piglets to simulate the conditions following traumatic brain injury in infants. Diffuse optical techniques, including diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and diffuse correlation ... Full text Link to item Cite

Real-time monitoring of hemodynamic changes in neonatal pig brain with head trauma injury

Journal Article Optics InfoBase Conference Papers · January 1, 2006 Di®use optical techniques were used to continuously monitor hemodynamic changes in piglet brains after traumatic head injury. The potential for using all optical methods for long-term monitoring of human trauma patients is thus suggested. © 2005 Optical So ... Cite

Real-time monitoring of hemodynamic changes in neonatal pig brain with head trauma injury

Conference Optics InfoBase Conference Papers · January 1, 2006 Di®use optical techniques were used to continuously monitor hemodynamic changes in piglet brains after traumatic head injury. The potential for using all optical methods for long-term monitoring of human trauma patients is thus suggested. © 2005 Optical So ... Full text Cite

Analysis of left ventricular hemodynamics in physiological hyperspace.

Journal Article J Appl Physiol (1985) · January 2002 Our laboratory has previously shown that it is possible to elucidate novel physiological relationships by analyzing the left ventricular pressure (P) contour in the phase [time derivative of P (dP/dt) vs. P] plane (Eucker SA, Lisauskas JB, Singh J, and Kov ... Full text Link to item Cite

Phase plane analysis of left ventricular hemodynamics.

Journal Article J Appl Physiol (1985) · June 2001 We sought to extract additional physiological information from the time-dependent left ventricular (LV) pressure contour and thereby gain new insights into ventricular function. We used phase plane analysis to characterize high-fidelity pressure data in se ... Full text Link to item Cite

Human cardiac physiology in the phase plane: The ejection fraction to limit cycle area relation

Journal Article Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology - Proceedings · December 1, 1999 Current physiologic parameters acquired during cardiac catheterization include the systolic, minimum, and end-diastolic left ventricular pressures, the ejection fraction, and the maximum and minimum rates of pressure rise and fall. To extract additional ph ... Cite