In 2025, UCSF’s High Risk Emergency Medicine Conference celebrates 25 years as an essential educational resource for emergency physicians around the world. Over the last quarter century, the conference, taught by leading experts in the field, has brought together nearly 8,000 attendees to share best practices and avoid preventable errors with the goal of improving care for patients in the emergency and urgent care settings.
While it has changed from its early days, adapting to both clinical advances and the changing nature of continuing medical education (CME), the conference has continued to thrive and garner both respect and outstanding evaluations from its attendees. Beyond emergency physicians, these attendees include many practitioners who encounter high-risk conditions in their daily medical practice, including internists, family physicians, pediatricians, geriatricians and critical care specialists. The conference has also provided the UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine broad global visibility as a leader in emergency medicine, leading to opportunities for faculty and trainees alike.
History of the Conference
In 2000, when the late Christopher Barton, MD, started the conference, “There was a gap in quality education for EM faculty in high-risk emergency conditions,” says Jeffrey Tabas, MD, who has been involved in organizing and running the conference since its inception. “We offered a sea change in how you learn about patients in the ED, where it's time-pressured and you don't always have a full medical history or immediate access to medical records.”
The course was originally offered in San Francisco, but it quickly became so popular that, by 2007, the department opened a second course in Hawaii. It was a big hit.
Nevertheless, over the next decade or so, “The cost of running conferences increased,” says Tabas, “and competitors with less oversight than academic medical centers began moving into the space. We did our best to highlight our truly outstanding education and to reduce our costs.”
Over time, that work has borne fruit. Conference enrollment is up again. The department’s recent hiring of Communications Specialist Rachel Narozniak, MA, has led to improvements in the online marketing of the program. There are even plans to offer a remote learning option so people can attend virtually and earn CME credit by tuning in live.
Benefits Abound
During the conference, attendees learn from world-leading emergency medicine clinicians and researchers on a wide range of topics, as well as from experts in other fields who can expand the understanding of specialty emergency care.
“This year, we had a world-renowned leader in earth education speak about climate change, natural disasters, and why epidemics happen,” says Tabas.
In addition, many attendees bring stories about working in remote and resource-starved settings without access to specialists, timely therapies or diagnostic tools. The exchange of clinical ideas and the perspective these participants bring helps attendees and faculty alike.
The conference also boosts the department’s faculty development in multiple ways. A few examples:
- The Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine piloted a boot camp course at the conference, which the division then built into its own conference at Mission Bay.
- Delivering presentations hones faculty expertise and helps to disseminate their key insights and research – a benefit that extends to faculty’s invitations to speak at national conferences, edit textbooks or serve on national committees.
- Importantly, these presentations also provide an opportunity to build resumes and support teaching award nominations.
Finally, the conference offers an opportunity for team building within the department, as well as a chance to forge stronger relationships with colleagues from other disciplines at UCSF.
“We’ve had many people from other specialties teach with us, and when we interact like that, it helps them better understand what an emergency medicine physician faces,” says Tabas.
This year’s conference welcomed 185 participants and ran from March 9 – 13, 2025 at The Kahala Hotel & Resort in Honolulu.
Register to attend next year's conference
Click to read the Department of Emergency Medicine's 2024 Annual Report