Social Emergency Medicine Debut At Saem Tomorrow

Tomorrow is a debut of sorts for the intellectual framework we have been calling Social Emergency Medicine.  We will be presenting a didactic section at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine annual meeting, moderated by me with perspectives and data presented by a few members of the Levitt Center’s Scientific Advisory Committee.

I am excited to have Jim Gordon, a thoughtful student of history, discussing his views of the role of the contemporary emergency within the fabric of the social welfare system. Bob Lowe, who throughout a remarkably productive research career has always managed to stay true to his equally remarkable ethic, will challenge us with notions of appropriate ED use that upend our preconceptions.  Renee Hsia, a young investigator with a rocket ship career in health services research, will help us understand the structural basis of the socioeconomic gradient in medical care.  I hope there will be time – and I think there will – for me to present the work of our absent colleague, Karin Rhodes, who is honoring the Arizona boycott.  She has also consistently molded her research to serve her values, and has entrusted me with her data demonstrating a dose-response relationship between elements of economic deprivation and functional health status.

I am hoping that listeners come away with a clarity of purpose in an old but refocused research enterprise, and that some hard questions come our way to further refine and fire the concepts.

More good news today: Knox Todd, one of EM’s best-established researchers with an abiding interest in health equity, will join our Scientific Advisory Committee.  An incredibly rich mixture of interests, but consistent in its level of talent and ability.