S A E M
NEWSLETTER
Newsletter of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Myths Regarding the Federal Funding of Emergency Medicine Research Compared to most academic medical specialties, emergency medicine is young and we are still working to establish, and to understand, our place within the house of medicine. Of the three Roger Lewis components of the “triple threat” (clinical care, clinical education, and research), we have achieved both excellence and confidence in two: clinical care and clinical education. While our status in the research arena may be unclear to some, I believe our self image in this area is even more suspect. The purpose of this column is to address our own perceptions regarding the status of emergency medicine research, by discussing some commonly-held beliefs or myths regarding federal support of emergency medicine research. The term “myth” is defined by Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate dictionary as “…an ill-founded belief held uncritically especially by an interested group.” I believe many commonly-held beliefs regarding federal support of emergency medicine research are actually myths. Since we are clearly an interested group, the only way to dispel a myth is to look at it critically. Consider the following statements: 1. Federal agencies don’t like to fund clinical studies, especially in emergency medicine; 2. The NIH funds PhDs, not MDs; 3. Emergency medicine investigators are rarely successful in securing federal funding for their research; and 4. Emergency medicine proposals, especially clinical research, will not be evaluated fairly nor will they be funded consistently, until the NIH has a study section devoted to emergency medicine. I would assert that many academic emergency physicians, while they may not consciously believe these statements, either believe them at some level or at least behave as if they are true. Thus, I will spend the rest of this column exploring some of the data available which bear directly on the veracity of these statements. Consider the first statement. There is a common belief that the NIH, or at least its study sections (the panels of consultants who evaluate and score applications), place tremendous emphasis on basic science and, as a corollary, tend not to fund clinical research. In fact, there probably was some truth to this belief in the past. In response to both internal and external concerns (continued on page 31)
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May/June 2002 Volume XIIII, Number 3
Annual Business Meeting During the Annual Business Meeting in St. Louis on May 20 Dr. Martin announced the results of the annual elections: President-Elect Donald M. Yealy, MD University of Pittsburgh Secretary/Treasurer Carey D. Chisholm, MD Indiana University Board of Directors James G. Adams, MD Northwestern University Katherine L. Heilpern, MD Emory University Donald J. Kosiak, Jr, MD Mayo Graduate School of Medicine Nominating Committee Jill Baren, MD University of Pennsylvania Constitution and Bylaws Committee Catherine Marco, MD St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center In addition, James Hoekstra, MD, was appointed to a one-year term on the Board of Directors to complete Dr. Chisholm’s unexpired term that resulted upon Dr. Chisholm’s election as Secretary-treasurer. Dr. Martin announced that all proposed Constitution and Bylaws amendments had been overwhelmingly approved by the membership. The Young Investigator Awards were presented to Eric Dickson, MD, University of Massachusetts, James Gordon, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Daniel Morris, MD, Henry Ford Hospital. Awards were also presented to Jason Borton, MD, the 2002-2003 EMS Research Fellow, Robert Neumar, MD, University of Pennsylvania, recipient of the Institutional Research Training Grant; Samuel Yang, MD, Johns Hopkins University, recipient of the Resident Research Year Grant; Linda Papa, MD, University of Florida, recipient of the Scholarly Sabbatical Grant; Peter Panagos, MD, University of Cincinnati, recipient of the Neuroscience (continued on page 17)