Pathway for a Diverse and Sustainable Emergency Medicine Clinician-Scientist Workforce: Recommendations From the 2024 SAEM Consensus Conference.

Abstract

Objectives: The 2024 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference focused on developing a pathway to build and support a diverse and sustainable emergency medicine (EM) clinician-scientist workforce. The underlying premise is that the specialty of EM needs a robust clinician-scientist workforce to fulfill its research mission of creating new knowledge to improve patient care and outcomes.

Methods: Preconference workgroups assessed existing pathways to develop and support EM clinician-scientists and generated unranked lists of strategies to holistically and comprehensively grow the clinician-scientist workforce. These strategies were refined and prioritized during a one-day, in-person conference, which was followed by a virtual conference to reach consensus on metrics, goals, and timelines for implementation.

Results: Overarching strategies included fostering a departmental culture that values research, addressing barriers to recruiting and retaining a diverse research work force, and enhancing the national reputation of EM research. At the undergraduate and medical school stage, creating a portfolio of medium- and long-term research training opportunities with EM faculty mentors was the highest priority. At the resident and fellow stage, top priorities were dedicated research training built into EM residencies and clinical fellowships. Early-career faculty strategies prioritized departmental support for federally funded K awards. Mid-career faculty strategies prioritized securing federal support for research mentoring, leading institutional training grants, and building research teams that include PhD scientists. At all stages, we addressed recruitment and retention of trainees and faculty from disadvantaged and underserved groups.

Conclusions: These prioritized strategies with respective metrics, goals, timelines, and responsible parties provide a roadmap for EM to build a broadly inclusive and sustainable clinician-scientist workforce, capable of creating the new knowledge needed to advance emergency medical care. Successful implementation will require substantial commitment and investment from national EM organizations and academic department chairs. The result will be improved care and outcomes for the patients and communities we serve.