By Michael Harrison
Medical Center Public Relations
The Medical Center and the Catherine McAuley Health System (CMHS) have joined forces to offer a residency program that trains physicians specializing in emergency medicine.
A dozen recent medical school graduates will enter the new program in July. Residents will rotate between the emergency departments at U-M Hospitals, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital and Flint’s Hurley Medical Center.
The field is attracting more new physicians “because it’s the only specialty in which you can treat everything,” Barsan says. “You can assist a very sick patient and deal with all sorts of complications without limiting yourself to one medical area.”high-quality training in all facets of emergency medicine training at hospitals with slightly different, yet complementary case loads. The residents will treat different kinds of patients in each emergency room,” says William Barsan, professor and head of the U-M’s section of emergency medicine.
Residents will be able to conduct research at the U-M and fly on the helicopter ambulance services at both the U-M and St. Joe’s. During rotations at Hurley, residents will learn about treating medical problems typical of inner city and other urban populations. The program is accredited by the Council for Graduate Medical Education’s Emergency Medicine Residency Review Committee.
“This is a unique opportunity for resident physicians to experience all aspects of the specialty, including community, academic and high-volume trauma emergency medicine,” says interim program director James Mitchiner. “Compared with other specialties, emergency medicine is still significantly understaffed both in Michigan and nationwide, and the joint residency program will increase the number of physicians who provide this important service.”
Emergency medicine was formally recognized as a subspecialty in 1978 and medical schools and hospitals have only recently established training programs.
