We have an outstanding faculty. Departmental status will permit them to build on their accomplishments and help the School of Medicine achieve its goals for teaching, research and community service. The change in status is particularly timely in light of the 1998 transformation of the treatment room at Emory University Hospital to a full-service emergency department. Since this has occurred, visits to the Emory Hospital emergency department have increased dramatically. Emergency medicine's 39 faculty members support one of the nation's oldest and largest training programs in the specialty of emergency medicine.
Many graduates go on to staff hospital emergency departments throughout Georgia.
The department also teaches medical students from both schools, as well as students from the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, physician assistants and paramedics. Emory's emergency medicine faculty physicians are outspoken in their support of injury control measures such as use of seatbelts and motorcycle helmets, and preventing domestic violence. They regularly speak to community groups, local and national media, and lobby the Georgia General Assembly and other political bodies for enactment of trauma prevention measures. We are also big believers in prevention, because we see what happens when prevention fails. The best way to survive a heart attack or a car crash is to not have one in the first place.