ACEP leader created, nurtured Council Challenge
Council Members meeting the Challenge
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In 1997, David Wilcox, MD, stood up at the ACEP Council meeting and issued a challenge to his fellow councilors. “I told them I would match the first $5 of every councilor’s contribution to EMF,” Wilcox recalls. “There were about 250 councilors then, so ostensibly that would cost me $1,250. My challenge to them was to force me to fork over $1,250.”
Wilcox’s goal was to get 100% participation from the Council members, but in that first year, “maybe about a third or a half of the Council donated,” Wilcox reports. “To me, it was kind of a disappointment. But we raised about $6,000, which was still a sizeable donation.” Wilcox gave his $1,250 to EMF anyway.
It took two or three more years before the Council Challenge hit 100% participation—a donation from every councilor—and it has continued at the 100% level ever since. The Council Challenge raised more than $47,000 for emergency medicine research in 2006, and has exceeded $300,000 during its 10-year run.
Other councilors and College leaders have joined Wilcox in matching the dollars donated, so that now there are as many as 50 co-challengers. Some challengers match the first dollar or two, and some match the first $5, as Wilcox continues to do.
“One of the things I tell people is that 100% of their contribution goes directly to research, because ACEP underwrites all of the administrative costs,” Wilcox notes.
Wilcox, who began contributing to EMF as soon as he got out of residency training, thinks that a significant role for EMF funds is getting researchers started. “For researchers, seed money is extremely important. EMF is at the grass roots—we can’t give hundreds of thousands of dollars to one person, but sometimes just a few hundred dollars to a medical student or several thousand to someone—that’s important to get them started.”
Following 17 years in academic medicine at Brown University and the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Wilcox has practiced per diem at several emergency departments in Connecticut. In addition, he is now the Connecticut medical director for WellCare, a provider for government-sponsored health plans such as Medicare, Medicaid, and State Children’s Health Insurance Programs.grant.”
