Medical Director of Sexual Assault Program
Rush University Medical Center
Chicago, Illinois
Dr. Monika Pitzele obtained her PhD from Northwestern University and MD from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she also completed the Emergency Medicine residency program. She currently is an Assistant Professor at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She is also the Medical Director of the Sexual Assault Program at Rush, a position that is the first of its kind in Illinois.
Dr. Pitzele has a long-standing interest in forensic emergency medicine. She has been extensively involved in the Forensic Section of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and currently holds the Vice Chair position after serving as a Councilor for the Section. Her contributions to the Section include articles in the Section newsletter, the chapter “DV Homicides” in the Domestic Violence Handbook and the webinar “Forensic Aspects of MVC Injuries”. She also co-authored the chapter “Fatal Domestic Violence” in the Domestic Violence Assessment prepared by STM Learning. She participates in regular educational activities at the Rush Emergency Medicine Residency, both on general EM education and forensic topics. She also educates Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners and paramedics regarding care of sexual assault survivors, trauma informed care, domestic violence and strangulation.
Since 2018 Dr. Pitzele has been representing Emergency Physicians on the Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Services Implementation Task Force. The Task Force is a statewide multidisciplinary group overseeing the implementation of IL Public Act 100-0775, which amended the IL Sexual Assault Emergency Treatment Act. An important change in the Act was instituting a requirement for a provider specifically trained in care of sexual assault survivors to care for every one of those patients. The goal of the Task Force was to facilitate these changes, which is being done via dissemination of educational materials, outreach, creating guidelines for curricula, data collection and analysis.
Together with the members of the Task Force and the IL chapter of ACEP (on which she now sits on the Board of Directors), Dr. Pitzele led advocacy work with the goal of legislative changes to compensation and billing for medical forensic exams. She founded a coalition of hospitals and organizations to help meet these legislative goals, published an op ed, took part in publicity efforts involving NPR and the Chicago Tribune to help spread awareness about the issues. The legislation resulted in Illinois bills HB4700 and SB3023 passed and were introduced into law in 2022.
