SAEM PULSE | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2022
SAEM Annual Awards: A Who’s Who of Emergency Medicine
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Emergency medicine (EM) quietly turned 50 last year, five decades after Gail V. Anderson was named the first chair of emergency medicine at Los Angeles County, University of Southern California (LAC/USC) Medical Center in October 1971. Although formation of the Emergency Medical Residents’ Association (EMRA) in 1974 and the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) in 1979 served to solidify our specialty’s place in the firmament of medical practice, we are still considered newcomers in the medical world. One of the most exciting aspects of our specialty is that some of our founders are still alive, perhaps even practicing and teaching EM to the next generation of practitioners. The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) was founded in 1989, as an amalgamation of the University Association for Emergency Medicine
(UAEM) and the Society of Teachers of Emergency Medicine (STEM). Our purpose for the last 33 years has been to, “improve care of the acutely ill and injured patient by improving research and education.” But the improvements that we seek are not easily won and are often achieved by those working quietly behind the scenes to advance our specialty. Each year, SAEM honors the best and brightest EM physicians with its annual awards ceremony, recognizing those individuals who have shown, “excellence in our field, for contributions improving the health of society, and for academic achievements.” A review of the past winners of these awards reads like a “who’s who” of emergency medicine. The names of women and men who built our specialty from the ground up are preserved here, their examples continuing to inform
and inspire the rest of us. For those unfamiliar with these awards, here are some of the highlights:
John Marx Leadership Award This award honors a, “SAEM member who has made exceptional contributions to emergency medicine through leadership – locally, John Marx regionally, nationally or internationally – with priority given to those with demonstrated leadership within SAEM.” Trained under Peter Rosen, Dr. John Marx left Denver General after 10 years with Carolinas Medical Center, where he served with distinction as chair for
