To enable this vision and further enhance our role toward cost savings will require emergency medicine researchers to complement validated CDRs with the creation, testing and validation of accurate and persuasive patient-education tools, sufficient to dissuade most patients from dogmatic and erroneous beliefs regarding imaging. Emergency physicians have exploded incorrect dogmas before. For instance, consider the previous dogmatic belief that no abdominal-pain patient can be administered an opiate until they have been examined by a surgeon.¹³ Hopefully, patients’ beliefs regarding radiographs can also become consigned to the dustbin of history.

In re-branding ourselves, we should also work to explode other myths that plague us, by refuting certain misleading beliefs that cause the public to conclude wrongly that ED care is a larger source of health care expenditures than is the case.

Brian Zink captured a wonderful initial vision statement for our specialty with the title of his book, “Anyone, Anything, Anytime,” which documented the history of our specialty. In 2023 we must move beyond that title. Emergency physicians help not only save lives, but also save significant sums of money, 24/7/365. Might I suggest: Emergency Medicine: Saving lives, but also dollars, with our quick, efficient, and effective care.

Dr. Gaddis is a “PGY-37” who has stepped away from full-time employment after a 32-year full-time career in academic emergency medicine, and now works a limited number of shifts in a rural Critical Access hospital in Missouri. He also currently serves as a professor of Biomedical and Health Informatics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, and enjoys exploring contrarian views of issues that impact the specialty of emergency medicine.

References

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3. Mayo Clinic Staff. Warfarin side effects. Watch for interactions. The Mayo Clinic website. February 22, 2022. Accessed June 10, 2023.
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