LoVecchio's research mainly focuses on
ketone levels in the lungs and blood, and pesticide exposures and scorpion stings in young children. He has advocated in the legal arena regarding medical toxicology, emergency medicine, addiction, product safety and public health issues, and has also worked as an on-air expert on topics including,
public health,
opioid crisis, and COVID-19. He was featured in
National Geographic’
Drugs, Inc. Flesh-Eating
Krokodil episode. He has received funding to study
suicide prevention,
respiratory diseases,
CPR,
sepsis, and
MRSA infections.
COVID-19 pandemic In a February 2021
New York Times documentary following
Valleywise healthcare workers, LoVecchio gave positive remarks on the expected future
COVID-19 situation in Arizona. In September of that year, he was part of a study that conducted a test-negative case-control investigation regarding the effectiveness of
Moderna COVID-19 vaccine among U.S. health care personnel.
Emergency Medicine In 2014, LoVecchio conducted a
multicenter trial in the
tertiary care setting, and found out that protocol-based
resuscitation of patients in whom septic shock was diagnosed in the emergency department did not improve outcomes. In his paper published in 2010, he investigated the survival rate of patients with out-of-hospital
cardiac arrest using compression-only CPR (COCPR) compared with conventional CPR. Results of his study showed that layperson compression-only CPR was associated with increased survival in comparison to conventional CPR and no bystander CPR in this setting with public endorsement of chest compression–only CPR. LoVecchio also investigated the influence of the infecting
pathogen on the hospital length of stay (LOS) for acute
bronchiolitis. He determined that
RSV was more frequently detected virus in children hospitalized with bronchiolitis, as compared to
HRV; which was detected in one-quarter of the children. Furthermore, he studied
procalcitonin-guided use of
antibiotics in context of
lower respiratory tract infection. In 1997, The dogma of avoiding
analgesics in patients with acute
abdominal pain was challenged, and in one of the first studies addressing this issue, LoVecchio and his colleagues, concluded that physical examination does change after the administration of analgesics in patients with acute abdominal pain. He also conducted a study to determine the impact of
ED-initiated intervention in terms of subsequent
suicidal behavior.
Medical Toxicology LoVecchio published a paper in 2008 focused on how
poison control centers decrease emergency healthcare utilization costs, and determined that the home management by
Banner Poison Control Center provided large monetary savings to residents in comparison to dollars received in state support. He also focused his study on the
centruroides sculpturatus and regarded it as the only scorpion native to the United States whose venom produces life‐threatening illness. He studied the distribution of the severity grades following scorpion envenomations, the time to deterioration, the onset of clinical signs and symptoms, and side effects regarding the
antivenom treatment in children of particular age. LoVecchio reviewed poison center data charts from January 2007 through December 2009, and discussed the outcomes of unintentional
beta-blocker or
calcium channel blocker overdoses among patients. Furthermore, he conducted a 5-year retrospective poison control center review and explored the outcomes regarding
chlorine exposure in 598 patients. == Selected bibliography ==