TY - JOUR
T1 - Academic emergency medicine's future
AU - Iserson, Kenneth V.
AU - Adams, James
AU - Cordell, William H.
AU - Graff, Louis
AU - Halamka, John
AU - Ling, Louis
AU - Peacock IV, W. Frank
AU - Sklar, David
AU - Stair, Tom
PY - 1999/2
Y1 - 1999/2
N2 - Emergency medicine (EM) will change over the next 20 years more than any other specialty. Its proximity to and interrelationships with the community, nearly all other clinicians (physicians and nonphysicians), and scientific/technologic developments guarantee this. While emergency physicians (EPs) will continue to treat both emergent and nonemergent patients, over the next decades our interventions, methods, and place in the medical care system will probably become unrecognizable from the EM we now practice and deliver. This paper, developed by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Task Force on Academic Emergency Medicine's Future, was designed to promote discussions about and actions to optimize our specialty's future. After briefly discussing the importance of futures planning, it suggests 'best-case,' 'worst-case,' and most probable future courses for academic EM over the next decades. The authors predict that EPs will practice a much more technologic and accurate form of medicine, with diagnostic, patient, reference, and consultant information rapidly available to them. They will be at the center of an extensive consultation network stemming from major medical centers and the purveyors of a sophisticated home health system, very similar to or even more advanced than what is now delivered on hospital wards. The key to planning for our specialty is for EM organizations, academic centers, and individuals to act now to optimize our possible future.
AB - Emergency medicine (EM) will change over the next 20 years more than any other specialty. Its proximity to and interrelationships with the community, nearly all other clinicians (physicians and nonphysicians), and scientific/technologic developments guarantee this. While emergency physicians (EPs) will continue to treat both emergent and nonemergent patients, over the next decades our interventions, methods, and place in the medical care system will probably become unrecognizable from the EM we now practice and deliver. This paper, developed by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Task Force on Academic Emergency Medicine's Future, was designed to promote discussions about and actions to optimize our specialty's future. After briefly discussing the importance of futures planning, it suggests 'best-case,' 'worst-case,' and most probable future courses for academic EM over the next decades. The authors predict that EPs will practice a much more technologic and accurate form of medicine, with diagnostic, patient, reference, and consultant information rapidly available to them. They will be at the center of an extensive consultation network stemming from major medical centers and the purveyors of a sophisticated home health system, very similar to or even more advanced than what is now delivered on hospital wards. The key to planning for our specialty is for EM organizations, academic centers, and individuals to act now to optimize our possible future.
KW - Academic emergency medicine
KW - Emergency services
KW - Forecasting
KW - Health planning
KW - Health services needs and demands
KW - Telemedicine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0033054444&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1111/j.1553-2712.1999.tb01052.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1553-2712.1999.tb01052.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 10051906
AN - SCOPUS:0033054444
SN - 1069-6563
VL - 6
SP - 137
EP - 144
JO - Academic Emergency Medicine
JF - Academic Emergency Medicine
IS - 2
ER -