About Emergency Medicine
Academic emergency medicine at The University of Arizona began on September 1, 1980 with the creation of the Section of Emergency Medicine within the Department of Surgery. On July 1, 1982, the Emergency Medicine Residency Program started with six residents per year. Currently, the program has expanded to 12 residents per year. The UMC Emergency Department, which was experiencing approximately 20,000 visits per year when the program commenced, now sees more than 65,000 patient visits per year as a Level 1 trauma center.
The faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine are some of the most outstanding academicians in the country. We presently have five tenured full professors, seven associate professors, and 10 assistant professors of emergency medicine. Our outstanding faculty has served as presidents of the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM), the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), and the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD), and vice presidents of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). Most major textbooks and peer review journals in the field of emergency medicine have authors or editors from our faculty.
The Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center (AEMRC), founded in October 1990, is the research and training base of the program. Within the AEMRC, programs such as EMS Training, Advanced Hazmat Life Support (AHLS), and clinical and epidemiologic research, all take place. Over the years, the Department of Emergency Medicine–AEMRC has secured millions of dollars of extramural funding to advance the field of emergency medicine.
Harvey W. Meislin, M.D.
Professor and Head of Emergency Medicine
Director, Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center
