Derek Tam is a board-certified pediatric emergency physician at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, Washington.
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Academic affiliations
- Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine
- Assistant Professor, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University
Licenses & Certifications
- Washington State Medical License
- Pediatric Advanced Life Support
- Advanced Cardiac Life Support
- Advanced Trauma Life Support
- Neonatal Resuscitation Program – advanced practitioner
- Board certifications:
- American Board of Pediatrics – General Pediatrics
- American Board of Pediatrics – Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Medical Training
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow, UC San Diego Medical Center – Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego, CA (07/2020-07/2023)
- Chief Resident, Department of Pediatrics, Maimonides Children’s Hospital, Brooklyn, NY (07/2019-06/2020)
- Resident Physician, Department of Pediatrics, Maimonides Children’s Hospital, Brooklyn, NY (07/2016-06/2019)
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- PGY-1 Peer Leadership Award (2017)
- PGY-3 Advocacy Award (2019)
Education
- MD – 2016, Northwestern University
- Study abroad rotations – Keio University, Tokyo, Japan – Pediatrics & Radiology (April 2016)
- MPH – 2016, Northwestern University
- Student body president, Public Health Program – October 2014-June 2016
- International field experience – Hong Kong University, Hong Kong SAR (July 2012)
- BA, Cognitive Science – 2011, Northwestern University
- Graduated Summa cum Laude, with honors in the Cognitive Science Department
- Inducted to Phi Beta Kappa, Illinois Alpha Chapter, May 2011
- Study abroad – Public Health in South Africa (March 2010-June 2010)
Publications & posters
- Dean P, Geis G, Hoehn EF, …, Tam D, Murray M, & Kerrey B. High-Risk Criteria for the Physiologically Difficult Paediatric Airway: a Multicenter, Observational Study to Generate Validity Evidence. Resuscitation. 2023. DOI 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2023.109875.
- Tam D, Murray MP. Total Isolated Monocular Vision Loss in a Patient Who Suffered Closed Head Injury. J Emerg Med. 2022. DOI 10.1016/j.jemermed.2021.11.014. [Full text PDF]
- Tam D, Berger M, Lee H. Calculated Decisions: Jones Criteria for Acute Rheumatic Fever Diagnosis. Pediatr Emerg Med Pract. 2020;17(1):CD3–CD4. PMID: 32065519.
- Tam D. Calculated Decisions: Pediatric National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (PedNIHSS). Pediatr Emerg Med Pract. 2019;16(11):CD1-CD2. PMID: 31675199.
- Tam D, Vazquez H. Calculated decisions: Pediatric appendicitis risk calculator (pARC). Pediatr Emerg Med Pract. 2019;16(9):CD5-CD6. PMID 31687793.
- Tam D, Vazquez H, Tainter C. Calculated Decisions: PECARN Rule for Low-Risk Febrile Infants. Pediatr Emerg Med Pract. 2019;16(Suppl 7):CD6-CD7. PMID: 31294951.
- Yu D, Tam D, Franconeri SF. Gestalt similarity groupings are not constructed in parallel. Cognition. 2019;182:8-13. PMID 30212653. [Undergraduate thesis research]
- Bonadio W, Bruno S, Attaway D, Dharmar L, Tam D, Homel P. Lack of utility of measuring serum bilirubin concentration in distinguishing perforation status of pediatric appendicitis. Am J Emerg Med. 2017;35(6):885-888. PMID: 28185747.
- Yu D, Tam D, Franconeri S. Grouping by similarity is serial, irrespective of spacing or group size (Poster). J Vision. 2014;14(10):808.
- Tam D, Levinthal B, Franconeri S. Feature selection as a mechanism for color grouping (Poster). J Vision. 2011;11(11):1082.
Other activities
- Instructor – Tacoma Fire Department Paramedic skills session, pediatric airway station (12/11/2023)
- Active Research Projects
- Geospatial analysis of pediatric suicides in San Diego County [fellowship research study]
- Improving adherence to AAP febrile young infant guidelines [fellowship QI study]
- Committee Memberships (current)
- Mary Bridge Pediatric Code Blue Committee
- Clinical practice guideline development (Mary Bridge)
- Febrile infants less than 60 days old
- Acute appendicitis
- Foreign body ingestion (primary creator)
- Committee Memberships (past)
- Trauma Committee, Rady Children’s Hospital (07/2020-present)
- Case Review Committee, Rady Children’s Hospital (07/2020-present)
- Quality Improvement Committee, Rady Children’s Hospital (07/2020-present)
- Mentor – Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Medical Alumni Association Heart-to-heart mentoring program
- Peer reviewer – Journal of Emergency Medicine (October 2020-present)
- Resident team leader – Blood culture contaminant quality improvement project (January 2018-June 2020)
- Supervised resident analysis of blood culture contaminants
- Directed interventions to reduce blood culture contamination using PDSA technique
- Designer – “The PEM Card” & “PEM Card 2.0”
- Pocket card reference for pediatric emergency medicine
- Includes drug dosages, toxidromes, vital sign norms by age, and calculations useful for endotracheal intubation
- Co-authors: Bonadio W, Vazquez H
- View sample (pdf)
- Contributor – MDCalc.com
- Wrote content for clinical calculators including:
- Schwartz formula calculator (co-author: Juan Kupferman, MD)
- Peak flow norms (co-author: Joshua Needleman, MD)
- WAT (Withdrawal Assessment Tool) Score (co-author: Mohammed Gaffoor, MD)
- CAPD (Cornell Assessment of Pediatric Delirium) (co-author: Mohammed Gaffoor, MD)
- PECARN Rule for Low-Risk Febrile Infants 29-60 days old (co-author: Hector Vazquez, MD) (PMID 31294951)
- Pediatric Appendicitis Risk Calculator (co-author: Hector Vazquez, MD) (PMID 31687793)
- Pediatric NIH Stroke Score (co-authors: Steve Pavlakis, MD, and Gary McAbee, DO) (PMID 31675199)
- Jones Criteria (co-authors: Max Berger, MD, and Hyunjoo Lee, MD)
- Wrote content for clinical calculators including:
- Web editor (former) – NPHR.org
- Oversaw & created website design of student-led online public health journal
- Assisted in print magazine layout design
- Coordinated demands of editors and contributors for website content
- Student contributor – osmosis.org (January 2014-January 2016)
- Created board-style questions used by medical students
- Study aide for USMLE step exams and clerkship Shelf exams
Presentations & Educational activities
- Presentations
- Pediatric prehospital trauma – Western Washington region EMS annual conference, 05/2025
- The pediatric physiologically difficult airway –Tacoma PEM conference, 09/2024
- Febrile neonate updated guidelines – Tacoma PEM conference, 09/2024
- Fellowship presentations
- Public Health in PEM, Pediatric Emergency Medicine department Grand Rounds, Rady Children’s Hospital, 05/2023
- Review of 2021 AAP Febrile Young Infant Guidelines, 01/2022 – Lecture for Emergency Department Nursing Education Day, Rady Children’s Hospital, 01/2022
- Pediatric orthopedics review – US Navy Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Naval Medical Center, San Diego, CA, 12/2021
- Abdominal pain in toddler age children – Presentation for San Diego Regional PEM Conference, hosted at Rady Children’s Hospital, 11/2021
- Trauma Committee Morbidity & Mortality conference – Review of ED clamshell thoracotomy case, Rady Children’s Hospital, 08/2021
- Pediatric dermatology review – US Navy Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Naval Medical Center, San Diego, CA, 05/2021
- Residency Presentations
- Pediatric vaccine schedules & controversies – orientation lecture for new residents
- Medications for pediatric critical care
- Pediatric dental health
- Kawasaki disease
- Guide to the ABP board exam
- Transgender adolescent health
- Supraventricular tachycardia in an adolescent with partially repaired complex congenital heart disease – Department of Emergency Medicine Morbidity & Mortality conference
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