About

Sangeeta Lamba, MD, MS, HPEd, is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. She serves as Vice-President for Faculty Development and Diversity, as well as Vice-Chancellor for Diversity & Inclusion at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. Dr. Lamba is also the Director of Emergency Palliative Care. Her professional interests include undergraduate medical education, hospice and palliative medicine across undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education, communication skills training, and academic women faculty development. Her background includes medical training at PBDS Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Science in India, and residency training at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, NJ. She holds board certifications in Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Medicine
• Intensive care medicine
• Psychology
• Radiology
• Medical physics
• Mathematics
• Medical education
• Family medicine

Selected publications

• Smart E-Exam Proctoring with Emotion Detection and Distance Estimation

  Lecture notes in networks and systems · 2026-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Advanced Online Proctoring: Facial Emotion Monitoring with Attentive-Net

  Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The Attentive Proctoring System proposed in this paper addresses the growing need for reliable remote examination solutions amid the global shift toward online learning. Traditional methods of human proctoring are often constrained by scalability issues and resource demands, rendering them inefficient in the face of large-scale online assessments. Leveraging advanced deep learning techniques, our framework aims to ensure exam integrity through a multi-phase approach. By preprocessing video frames captured from students’ webcams and employing techniques such as background subtraction and face detection with YOLOv7- SGCN, we establish a robust foundation for identifying potential irregularities. YOLOv7- SGCN is ideally suited for real-time applications since it offers reliable and effective identification of questionable activity with no processing overhead. However, Attentive-Net improves attention-based feature learning, increasing the precision of recognizing tiny behavioral cues. Further enhancing security measures, our system integrates multi-modal liveness detection and head pose estimation, providing comprehensive monitoring capabilities. Emotion detection, facilitated by a Faster R-CNN, enables the identification of unauthorized aids like mobile devices or books. The integration of Attentive-Net allows for dynamic focus adjustment based on various component outputs, ensuring a thorough examination of pertinent areas within the image. With mechanisms in place for alert and intervention, our system offers a proactive approach to maintaining exam integrity, thereby fostering trust and confidence in the online examination process.

  PublisherDOI

• Assessment of Advancements in Online Examination Proctoring Systems

  Lecture notes in networks and systems · 2025-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Palliative Care Initiated in the Emergency Department

  JAMA · 2025-01-15 · 28 citations

  letterOpen access

  Importance: The emergency department (ED) offers an opportunity to initiate palliative care for older adults with serious, life-limiting illness. Objective: To assess the effect of a multicomponent intervention to initiate palliative care in the ED on hospital admission, subsequent health care use, and survival in older adults with serious, life-limiting illness. Design, Setting, and Participants: Cluster randomized, stepped-wedge, clinical trial including patients aged 66 years or older who visited 1 of 29 EDs across the US between May 1, 2018, and December 31, 2022, had 12 months of prior Medicare enrollment, and a Gagne comorbidity score greater than 6, representing a risk of short-term mortality greater than 30%. Nursing home patients were excluded. Intervention: A multicomponent intervention (the Primary Palliative Care for Emergency Medicine intervention) included (1) evidence-based multidisciplinary education; (2) simulation-based workshops on serious illness communication; (3) clinical decision support; and (4) audit and feedback for ED clinical staff. Main Outcome and Measures: The primary outcome was hospital admission. The secondary outcomes included subsequent health care use and survival at 6 months. Results: There were 98 922 initial ED visits during the study period (median age, 77 years [IQR, 71-84 years]; 50% were female; 13% were Black and 78% were White; and the median Gagne comorbidity score was 8 [IQR, 7-10]). The rate of hospital admission was 64.4% during the preintervention period vs 61.3% during the postintervention period (absolute difference, -3.1% [95% CI, -3.7% to -2.5%]; adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.03 [95% CI, 0.93 to 1.14]). There was no difference in the secondary outcomes before vs after the intervention. The rate of admission to an intensive care unit was 7.8% during the preintervention period vs 6.7% during the postintervention period (adjusted OR, 0.98 [95% CI, 0.83 to 1.15]). The rate of at least 1 revisit to the ED was 34.2% during the preintervention period vs 32.2% during the postintervention period (adjusted OR, 1.00 [95% CI, 0.91 to 1.09]). The rate of hospice use was 17.7% during the preintervention period vs 17.2% during the postintervention period (adjusted OR, 1.04 [95% CI, 0.93 to 1.16]). The rate of home health use was 42.0% during the preintervention period vs 38.1% during the postintervention period (adjusted OR, 1.01 [95% CI, 0.92 to 1.10]). The rate of at least 1 hospital readmission was 41.0% during the preintervention period vs 36.6% during the postintervention period (adjusted OR, 1.01 [95% CI, 0.92 to 1.10]). The rate of death was 28.1% during the preintervention period vs 28.7% during the postintervention period (adjusted OR, 1.07 [95% CI, 0.98 to 1.18]). Conclusions and Relevance: This multicomponent intervention to initiate palliative care in the ED did not have an effect on hospital admission, subsequent health care use, or short-term mortality in older adults with serious, life-limiting illness. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03424109.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Serious illness communication skills training for emergency physicians and advanced practice providers: a multi-method assessment of the reach and effectiveness of the intervention

  BMC Palliative Care · 2024-02-20 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: EM Talk is a communication skills training program designed to improve emergency providers' serious illness conversational skills. Using the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework, this study aims to assess the reach of EM Talk and its effectiveness. METHODS: EM Talk consisted of one 4-h training session during which professional actors used role-plays and active learning to train providers to deliver serious/bad news, express empathy, explore patients' goals, and formulate care plans. After the training, emergency providers filled out an optional post-intervention survey, which included course reflections. Using a multi-method analytical approach, we analyzed the reach of the intervention quantitatively and the effectiveness of the intervention qualitatively using conceptual content analysis of open-ended responses. RESULTS: A total of 879 out of 1,029 (85%) EM providers across 33 emergency departments completed the EM Talk training, with the training rate ranging from 63 to 100%. From the 326 reflections, we identified meaning units across the thematic domains of improved knowledge, attitude, and practice. The main subthemes across the three domains were the acquisition of Serious Illness (SI) communication skills, improved attitude toward engaging qualifying patients in SI conversations, and commitment to using these learned skills in clinical practice. CONCLUSION: Our study showed the extensive reach and the effectiveness of the EM Talk training in improving SI conversation. EM Talk, therefore, can potentially improve emergency providers' knowledge, attitude, and practice of SI communication skills. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03424109; Registered on January 30, 2018.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Let’s Get It Right

  2023-03-31

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Hospice care is a type of interdisciplinary healthcare for patients at the end of life that focuses on quality of life, comfort, and caring along the course of a patient’s terminal illness. In the United States, hospice care is defined by the Medicare Hospice Benefit and requires the patient to have a limited prognosis with a limited life expectancy as well as the goals of care that are aligned with comfort care. Most hospice care is provided at home with the family as the primary caregivers, although it may be provided in other settings, such as assisted living, long-term care facilities, and other community settings. Hospice providers manage the full spectrum of patient needs, including physical, spiritual, psychosocial, and emotional distress. Inpatient hospice units, where available, are utilized for patients when their care needs cannot be managed at home, such as those with significant and refractory symptoms. Referral to the hospice system of care, whether inpatient or outpatient, can be accomplished directly from the emergency department, provided that there are operational mechanisms in place to allow for transitions of care to hospice.

  PublisherDOI

• Emergency Palliative Care: Hospice Patients in the Emergency Department

  Journal of Palliative Medicine · 2023-11-27

  article

  In this segment of the emergency department (ED) palliative care (PC) case series, we discuss a patient on hospice who presented to the ED for the management of acute symptoms and potential procedural intervention. Hospice patients frequently visit the ED and can challenge typical ED paradigms of care that often include resuscitative efforts and broad workups. Our patient had a history of advanced liver cancer, and his ED presentation was prompted by worsening abdominal pain from ascites requiring serial paracentesis. PC consultation was requested to help address the patient's symptoms and create a plan of care. The PC clinician played an important role in supporting aggressive symptom management, re-evaluating goals of care, addressing concerns about hospice, and facilitating changes in code status requested for a procedure.

  PublisherDOI

• Campus Cultures and the Leader's Role

  2023-06-21

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter presents ways for an understanding of culture essential for effective leadership. It examines ways diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging contributed to organizational and leadership excellence. The chapter shows how can leaders in higher education integrate the skills of ethnography into their leadership practices. An understanding of cultural concepts and a sensitivity and responsiveness to cultural differences are increasingly vital given the recognized importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Inclusive leaders take ownership for diversity and inclusion in the organization instead of relegating it to a select few representatives. They exhibit a commitment to these aims in their messages and in their behaviors such that they exhibit a genuine and nonjudgmental curiosity about others, and have the ability to listen deeply and practice cultural humility. The two largest and most important employee groups within higher education institutions are the staff/administrators and the faculty, each of which plays a vital and significant role in any department, school, or institution.

  PublisherDOI

• Emergency Nurses’ Perceived Barriers and Solutions to Engaging Patients With Life-Limiting Illnesses in Serious Illness Conversations: A United States Multicenter Mixed-Method Analysis

  Journal of Emergency Nursing · 2023-11-15 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Emergency Palliative Care: Early Assessment of an Older Adult With a Fall and Hip Fracture

  Journal of Palliative Medicine · 2023-10-20

  articleOpen access

  In this segment of the emergency department (ED) palliative care case series, we present a patient who arrives to the ED after a fall resulting in a hip fracture. He is also found to have hypernatremia and an acute kidney injury and develops delirium while in the ED awaiting an inpatient bed. The ED-based integrated geriatric palliative care program is consulted and performs a multidimensional assessment. The geriatric palliative care clinician facilitates discussion with his daughter about surgical intervention based on the patient's goals and values, diagnoses delirium, and worsening depression, creates a plan for delirium and pain management, and accelerates postdischarge planning.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Roxanne Nagurka

  TESLA (Czechia)

  70 shared

• Anne C. Mosenthal

  Lahey Hospital and Medical Center

  56 shared

• Ronald B. Low

  Imperial College London

  51 shared

• Sandra Scott

  Transnational Press London

  47 shared

• Maria Soto‐Greene

  42 shared

• Rebecca Goett

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  39 shared

• Sophia Chen

  35 shared

• Sarah Bryczkowski

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  33 shared

Labs

• Emergency MedicinePI

Education

• M.D.

  University of Illinois at Chicago

• Other

  Rutgers New Jersey Medical School