Our Mission
The Social Emergency Medicine and Health Equity Section is a forum within the UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine for faculty, trainees, and staff, across all sites, to engage in research, training, practice, and advocacy related to social emergency medicine and health equity.
What is Social Emergency Medicine?
Social Emergency Medicine incorporates consideration of patients’ social needs and larger structural context into the practice of emergency care and related research. In doing so, the field explores the interplay of social forces and the emergency care system as they influence the well-being of individual patients and the broader community. Social Emergency Medicine recognizes that in many cases typical fixes such as prescriptions and follow-up visits are not enough; the need for housing, a safe neighborhood in which to exercise or socialize, or access to healthy food must be identified and addressed before patients’ health can be restored. (Excerpted from H.A. Alter, P. Dalawari, K.M. Doran, M.C. Raven (editors), Social Emergency Medicine, 2021).
Leadership
The Social Emergency Medicine and Health Equity section is co-led by Directors Dr. Maria Raven and Dr. Hemal Kanzaria
Members
The Section is open to interested Department of Emergency Medicine faculty, trainees, and staff across all UCSF sites. Benefits of membership include:
- Collaborating with and receiving mentorship from other section members
- Getting involved in ongoing and new social EM and health equity projects
- Membership in a community of practice
- Introductions to external research opportunities and collaborations
- Support for funding applications and academic output