Algis Baliunas, MD FAAEM is currently the director of the Emergency Department at Beacon Bremen Hospital in Bremen, Indiana. He graduated from Rush University in 2003 and completed his residency in Emergency Medicine and University of Florida Jacksonville in 2006.
Dr. Baliunas has been a practicing Emergency Physician for 15 years, 12 of those years at South Bend Emergency Physicians, an AAEM practice group. He has practiced in academic medicine as part time faculty for the University of Florida.
Dr. Baliunas also serves as Medical Director-Michigan and Medical Coordinator-Texas for Curative Medical Associates, a start-up company distributing COVID-19 vaccine in those states.
Dr. Baliunas has performed research with the University of Notre Dame. In 2015, he was awarded a grant from Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics for clinical direction in his work with micro-RNA point of care testing.
In his spare time, Dr. Baliunas enjoys sailing, biking, time with his fiancee and children and country dancing.
- Additional consultation hours available for a discounted rate of $300/hour (pricing for non-AAEM-PG members is $500/hour)
Arthur Smolensky, MD FAAEM is a partner, Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer in Middle Tennessee Emergency Physicians an independent private practice group in the Nashville area. Dr. Smolensky is also an assistant professor, Director of Informatics and Documentation with the University of Tennessee-Nashville/Murfreesboro emergency medicine residency. Prior to coming to Nashville Dr. Smolensky was the Human Resources Director and was on the Executive Board of a private emergency medicine practice in the Phoenix area. He completed his emergency medicine residency and was Chief Resident at the University of Arizona. Dr. Smolensky also is the President of Premier Scribes, a medical scribe service whose aim is to allow physicians to focus on patient care while ensuring chart accuracy and quality.
Dr. Smolensky also serves as the Secretary of AAEM Physician Group and serves as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Tennessee Chapter Division of AAEM. He also previously served on the Arizona ACEP chapter board of directors.
Luke Weber, MD, is an Administrative Fellow at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. He is also pursuing his MBA at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Dr. Weber completed his residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, where he served as chief resident. He is the RSA representative for the AAEM Operations Management Section and a member of the AAEM Workforce Committee.
Dr. Saba Rizvi is a board-certified emergency medicine physician with 15 years of practice experience. She graduated from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in 2005 and completed her residency training in emergency medicine at the University of Alabama Birmingham in 2009.
Dr. Rizvi has served as a Medical Director and currently practices locum emergency medicine in the state of Texas. Her interests include the intersection of medicine and the law, with a special interest in healthcare policy. She is staunch advocate of the autonomous practice rights of all physicians, but especially emergency medicine physicians.
Dr. Rizvi has been a member of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) since 2011.
Professor and Chair
Department of Emergency Medicine
Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
Past President of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine
Chief Medical Officer, AAEM Physician Group
Robert McNamara, MD MAAEM currently serves as Chairman at Temple University Hospital, the busiest Level 1 Trauma center in the Delaware Valley. Dr. McNamara served as AAEM’s President from 1996 until 2002. In 2015, he became the CMO of the newly created AAEM Physician Group which seeks to preserve physician-owned practices in Emergency Medicine. His professional experience includes twice serving as CMO of Temple University Hospital, he was also the CMO of Temple University Physicians for 13 years and Chair of the MEC at TUH for 18 years. He has published peer reviewed articles on practice issues, due process and patient flow.
Mark Reiter, MD MBA MAAEM FAEM is a partner in Middle Tennessee Emergency Physicians, a 70 physician independent, democratic practice, where he is also the serves on the Executive Board. Dr. Reiter is Professor and Residency Director of the University of Tennessee- Nashville/Murfreesboro emergency medicine residency. He also earned an MBA from the Rutgers Business School. Dr. Reiter completed his emergency medicine residency at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Dr. Reiter is the CEO of Emergency Excellence, a company dedicated to emergency medicine performance improvement, which offers services including patient callbacks (discharge phone calls), benchmarking, and consulting.
Dr. Reiter has been very active in organized medicine. He served on the Board of Directors for the American Academy of Emergency Medicine from 2005 to 2020 and served as national President from 2014 to 2016. He currently serves as CEO of the AAEM Physician Group, where he has coordinated the launch of the AAEM Consultation Service. He has served on the Council on Legislation for the American Medical Association and the Board of Trustees for the Medical Society of New Jersey.
Bob Frolichstein, MD FAAEM is the President of Greater San Antonio Emergency Physicians (GSEP) an independent, democratic group with 6 EDs and 47 emergency physician partners. Bob graduated from Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville before entering medical school at the University of Missouri. He attended medical school on a military scholarship. After graduation he completed a transitional internship at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, HI. Bob and his wife Dena then spent three years in the Republic of Panama where Bob worked in the ED of Gorgas Army Hospital and as Officer in Charge of a health clinic for active duty soldiers and their dependents. He then completed his Emergency Medicine Residency training at the military training program in San Antonio, TX. He stayed on as teaching faculty for three years post-graduation completing his military obligation.
Bob joined GSEP and after completing his partnership track, became a partner. He quickly assumed leadership roles including, Assistant Department Director, Department Director, Board of Directors and, for the last six years served as the President of GSEP. He has served on, and chaired numerous hospital committees. GSEP has successfully struggled to remain independent while providing exceptional care to over 200,000 patients annually in San Antonio. He considers the preservation of the opportunity for each emergency physician to practice in an independent, democratic group where each physician is treated fairly with transparency vital to the continued success of our specialty. He became involved in AAEM to help preserve and promote the values of AAEM and support the independent practice and lend a community emergency physicians perspective.
Bob and Dena are the proud parents of four children — Aaron, Abby, Olivia and Anna Claire.