Social Emergency Medicine

In September 2017, EMF partnered with ACEP and the Levitt Center for Social Emergency Medicine to host a groundbreaking consensus conference, "Inventing Social Emergency Medicine," designed to unify intellectual superstructure to previously disparate activities in the arena of social emergency medicine.

Funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the conference included physician researchers and program planners who share a common interest in the nexus of emergency medicine and the social determinants of health.

The conference included invited paper presentations, commentaries, and open discussion among the 50 attendees that discussed the spectrum of emergency medicine from bedside to community and the role emergency physicians have to play. Topics included:

• Principles of Social Emergency Medicine
• Screening for and Addressing Social Determinants of Health
• Homelessness and the Practice of Emergency Medicine: Challenges, Gaps in Care, and Moral Obligations
• A Paradigm Shift to Interrupt The Bi-directional Flow Driving Community Violence
• Emergency Physician as Community Health Advocates

A Social Emergency Medicine Section was established at ACEP shortly after the conclusion of the conference and the proceedings of the conference will be aggregated into a book or a journal supplement, as well as a web-based resource for those interested in understanding this rapidly emerging field within clinical and academic emergency medicine.

To learn more, visit the Social Emergency Medicine page: http://www.inventingsocialemergencymedicine.com/