About Emergency Medicine
Academic Emergency Medicine at The University of Arizona commenced in September of 1980. At that time, there were approximately four full-time faculty and University Medical Center’s Emergency Department had less than 20,000 patient visits per year.
Paramedics were new to Tucson and there were no trauma centers in all of southern Arizona. The subsequent almost three decades have seen immense growth in academic Emergency Medicine at the College of Medicine.
Emergency Medicine received academic departmental status on July 1, 2001. Today there are close to 40 faculty members and we are beginning the stages of developing a statewide Department of Emergency Medicine at the new College of Medicine in Phoenix. UMC is the only Level 1 trauma center in all of southern Arizona and construction is presently progressing on an 80-bed Emergency Department that has the capacity to see over 120,000 patient visits per year.
The Emergency Department of University Physicians Healthcare Hospital at Kino (UPHK) will also undergo significant expansion to a 55-bed Emergency Department capable of handling 70,000 patient visits per year. Within that facility, there will be a new psychiatric emergency department.
Several graduate medical education programs exist within the department. The categorical Emergency Medicine Residency Program, which started with six residents per year twenty-five years ago, presently takes 16 residents per year and is nationally ranked among the top programs.
Since inception, the Emergency Medicine Residency Program match rate has been 100 percent and the program has produced some of the most outstanding specialists in Emergency Medicine in the country.
Other graduate medical education programs include:
- Combined training in Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics;
- Fellowship programs in research, medical toxicology, sports medicine and emergency medical services (Link to the Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center for more information on fellowship programs.)
Undergraduate education through the new ArizonaMed curriculum has seen Emergency Medicine become a very popular medical student elective.
Since the inception of the program, the Emergency Medicine faculty and residents have authored close to 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals and major textbooks in Emergency Medicine.
The Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center (AEMRC), founded in October, 1990 as one of eight Centers of Excellence on the Arizona Health Sciences Center campus, is the research arm of the Department of Emergency Medicine. It houses the internationally acclaimed Advanced HAZMAT Life Support program, and has been the recipient of several million dollars in research grants and contracts.
The past has seen tremendous growth and the establishment of excellent clinical, academic and research programs.
The future will top the past.
Harvey W. Meislin, M.D.
Professor and Head of Emergency Medicine
Director, Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center
