Research

The Department of Emergency Medicine’s research division is as robust as the range of topics we examine. Our research projects are highly diverse in nature and focus, encompassing clinical research, translational research, and basic science in emergency medicine and other subspecialties, like critical care medicine and toxicology.  

In addition to integrating our research insights into clinical practice to advance emergency medical care, we are passionate about promoting health equity. Several members of our faculty are health policy scholars who advocate for policy changes to address inequities on a scale that extends far beyond the emergency department (ED). We see this work as a series of small steps toward a better future.  

Some of the areas of inquiry we’re most interested in at present include:

  • Clinical decision rules, diagnostic strategies, and clinical decision support
  • Artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning and advanced computational techniques
  • Appropriate use of imaging  
  • Disparities and structural health inequities  
  • Global health
  • Emergency care clinical trials in national networks (PECARN, SIREN, PPN)
  • Diagnosis and management of critical illness (stroke, acute coronary syndromes, etc.)
  • Child injury prevention (i.e., protocols for suicide screening and prevention in children and adolescents)
  • Social emergency medicine and population health
  • Substance use disorders and toxicology
  • Acute care innovation, translational research, and entrepreneurship
  • ED operational innovation, teamwork, and digital resources
  • Ultrasound
  • Health program and policy evaluation
  • Community-partnered research
  • Learning health system/health system-embedded research
  • Leveraging integrated data (across medical and non-medical domains)

Leadership

Renee Hsia

 

Renee Y. Hsia, MD, MSc

Vice Chair for Health Services Research

 

Robert Rodriguez

 

Robert Rodriguez, MD

Vice Chair for Clinical Research

 

 


Reach Beyond the ED

Many of our faculty are recognized both nationally and internationally as leaders in emergency medicine research and education, health policy, and scientific publishing. On average, our department publishes an average of 93 papers in peer-reviewed journals each year.  

Faculty also present annually at national and international conferences. Over the last four years, our research division has been responsible for an average of 24 presentations at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Annual Meeting. In the past two years, the research enterprise has averaged approximately 34 presentations at the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Scientific Assembly.

We strive to create an atmosphere that is conducive to the conduct of research, and as one of the institutions funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) Clinical and Translational Sciences Awards (CTSA) Program, we have the departmental and institutional resources to enable our faculty to thrive in their research pursuits. Multiple faculty members have received career development awards ranging from extramural sources, such as:

  • The NIH, both institutionally, via UCSF’s KL2 Scholars Program, as well as through the NIH’s individual, separate institutes and centers
  • Foundations including the American Heart Association, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Emergency Medicine Foundation, among others
  • Intramural sources, such as UCSF’s John A. Watson Faculty Scholars Program.

UCSF is also a National Clinician Scholars Program site. Scholars receive unparalleled clinical training from our world-class faculty that enables them to act as change agents driving policy-relevant research and partnerships to improve health and health care. The goal of the program is to cultivate health equity, eliminate health disparities, invent new models of care, and achieve higher-quality health care at lower cost by training nurse and physician researchers who work as leaders and collaborators embedded in communities, healthcare systems, government, foundations, and think tanks in the United States and around the world.

Clinical Trials

Over the past two years, the Department of Emergency Medicine’s research enterprise has grown substantially, amassing over $30 million in research funding. We have received extramural funding from private foundations and federal sources, including the:

  • NIH
  • U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
  • Department of Defense (DoD)
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

We seek to collaborate with colleagues across multiple disciplines throughout UCSF and at other institutions. Our department also prioritizes learner engagement in research with medical students, residents, and fellows.

National Networks

We are a member of the following national networks:

Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network  

In 2019, our department joined the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN). The first federally funded pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) research network in the United States, PECARN conducts research through a network that consists of a data coordinating center and several multi-institution research nodes. Cooperative agreements between academic medical centers and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau/Emergency Medical Services for Children Program at the Health Resources and Services Administration provide financial support.

Jacqueline Grupp-Phelan, MD, MPH, is the site principal investigator.

Strategies to Innovate EmeRgENcy Care Clinical Trials Network

In 2023, the Department of Emergency Medicine became a sub-hub in the Strategies to Innovate EmeRgENcy Care (SIREN) Clinical Trials Network, funded by the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). SIREN is a scalable network and operates with a hub and spoke structure with the ability to add more clinical sites (spokes) as needed for each individual clinical trial. In developing SIREN, the NIH has recognized that pre-clinical and translational research often demonstrates a critical early window of opportunity in which novel treatments for many emergencies are optimally effective and that conducting research in the emergency setting presents unique pragmatic challenges to clinical investigators.

Robert Rodriguez, MD, serves as the departmental lead for the SIREN network.

Collaborations

Pediatric Pandemic Network  

UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals (San Francisco & Oakland) became a Pediatric Pandemic Network (PPN) hub site in 2022. The federally funded initiative’s network includes 10 children’s hospitals from diverse regions across the U.S. Through the PPN, the hospitals serve as regional hubs dedicated to improve emergency care for children (i.e., natural disasters, global health threats including pandemics, and other crises). PPN hospitals work with regional and national programs, academic institutions, community organizations, and individual experts to share educational resources and best practices.  

Nicolaus Glomb, MD, is the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals site principal investigator. Brigitte French, CEM, is our hub site manager. Chris Newton, MD, FACS, FAAP, serves as the PPN's executive principal investigator.

World Health Organization

In 2017, our department was designated a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Emergency and Trauma Care. At the time, it was the first such designation in the United States, and one of only two in the world specifically dedicated to building emergency care systems. To be designated a WHO Collaborating Centre, an organization must have done at least two years of work with the WHO and show a sustained commitment to the field. Renee Hsia, MD, MSc, and Andrea Tenner, MD, MPH, led the Department of Emergency Medicine's efforts to obtain the designation.

In the time that has followed, the focus of our Collaborating Centre has expanded to encompass integrated emergency, critical, and operative care. Carol Chen, MD, MPH, and Michael Lipnick, MD, currently codirect the Collaborating Centre.

Visit Our Collaborating Centre's website