Finally, the College needs to put more resources into our core function of providing community. Not only must we do a better job of communicating the immense value we provide to the frontline doc, but in showing all the work we do, and the fights we fight on their behalf, we will help to show students choosing a specialty that we do, still, work in the best corner of the house of medicine. And when we leverage our deep resources to foster that sense of community, we improve not only our own sense of well-being, but foster a pipeline of new leaders who will be the ones setting the landscape for the next chapter of EM.

James L. Shoemaker, Jr., MD, FACEP

(incumbent, Indiana)

Current Professional Positions: Partner and attending emergency physician, Elite Emergency Physicians, Inc.; volunteer clerkship faculty, Indiana University School of Medicine, South Bend, IN.

Internships and Residency: Emergency medicine residency, Michigan State University/Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies, Kalamazoo, MI.

Medical Degree: MD, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis (2004)

Response

Emergency medicine is truly the greatest specialty in medicine. Each day we treat all comers presenting to our emergency departments regardless of their ability to pay, circumstance or background. We are the true medical experts our patients seek for symptoms and concerns that scare them. Much like Hogwarts sorts students into their appropriate houses in the Harry Potter series, we sort and triage to separate the “sick” from the “not sick” and begin immediate resuscitative efforts when time is of the essence. We are hands-on. The first 15 minutes of the undifferentiated patient is where we thrive and apply our expertise and unique skill set. Emergent procedures such as airways, central lines, sedations, reductions and defibrillation are commonplace to us. We invite and embrace the full breadth and complexity constituting all of medicine. Many facets of emergency medicine make it highly attractive to the very best of medical students—the unpredictable variety of cases, high stakes decision-making, teamwork, the immediate impact of our interventions, and flexibility in scheduling and work-life balance.

To remain an attractive specialty, it is essential that we protect the integrity of our beloved specialty from the encroachment of non-physician clinicians and scope creep. With over 150 million annual ED visits, our patients expect—and deserve—to be seen by a BC/BE EM physician leading a high-quality treatment team. There is no substitute for medical school and EM residency training. None. Further, we must ensure that business interests and entities never interfere with our medical judgment. Profits over patients is an unthinkable and untenable potential outcome of private equity involvement in the absence of well-established and enforceable guardrails. In addition, we must continue efforts to ensure adequate and fair compensation for the care we provide. We should be unapologetic about the income we make—from the professional fee side we are the best value in medicine. It is essential that we tackle ED Boarding and ED violence head-on, making patient and colleague safety an unwavering priority.