Executive summary: the Institute of Medicine report and the future of academic emergency medicine: the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine and Association of Academic Chairs in Emergency Medicine Panel: Association of American Medical Colleges annual meeting, October 28, 2006

Abstract

The findings in the Institute of Medicine's Future of Emergency Care reports, released in June 2006, emphasize that emergency physicians work in a fragmented system of emergency care with limited interhospital and out-of-hospital care coordination, too few on-call specialists, minimal disaster readiness, strained inpatient resources, and inadequate pediatric emergency services. Areas warranting special attention at academic medical centers (AMCs), both those included within the report and others warranting further attention, were reviewed by a distinguished panel and include the following: 1) opportunities to strengthen and leverage the educational environment within the AMC emergency department; 2) research opportunities created by emergency medicine (EM) serving as an interdisciplinary bridge in the area of clinical and translational research; 3) enhancement of federal guidelines for observational and interventional emergency care research; 4) recognition of the importance of EM residency training, the role of academic departments of EM, and EM subspecialty development in critical care medicine and out-of-hospital and disaster medicine; 5) further assessment of the impact of a regional emergency care model on patient outcomes and exploration of the role of AMCs in the development of such a model (e.g., geriatric and pediatric centers of EM excellence); 6) the opportunity to use educational loan forgiveness to encourage rural EM practice and the development of innovative EM educational programs linked to rural hospitals; and 7) the need to address AMC emergency department crowding and its adverse effect on quality of care and patient safety. Strategic plans should be developed on a local level in conjunction with support from national EM organizations, allied health care, specialty organizations, and consumer groups to help implement the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine report. The report recommendations and other related recommendations brought forward during the panel discussions should be addressed through innovative programs and policy development at the regional and federal levels.