Statement Type

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, joined by the following leading medical organizations, released the following statement:  American Academy of Emergency Medicine | American Academy of Family Physicians | American Academy of Nursing | American Academy of Pediatrics | American College of Chest Physicians | American College of Emergency Medicine | American College of […]

Last year, The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) and the AAEM Resident and Student Association (AAEM/RSA) proudly signed on, with eight other emergency medicine organizations, to the All EM DEI Vision Statement. In the wake of the Anti-DEI Medical Education Legislation, the Embracing Anti-Discrimination, Unbiased Curriculum, and Advancing Truth in Education  (EDUCATE) act (H.R.7725); […]

Re: The Biden ‘Strike Force’ Is Coming for You (March 6, 2024) As a practicing Emergency Physician and President of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM), I am disappointed at the immediate and misinformed response from this publication to the announcement that the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, and Department of Health and […]

In the 2024 Match, we enthusiastically welcomed over 3000 new residents to Emergency Medicine! Much has been said about the EM Match of the last 2 years. This year’s results are a testament to the resilience of our specialty, an acknowledgment of the critical role EM holds in the House of Medicine, and a result […]

The following statement was created by the AAEM Young Physicians (YPS-AAEM) and Women in Emergency Medicine (WiEM-AAEM) Sections. It was approved by the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) Board of Directors on Thursday, February 22, 2024. Background: Emergency physicians work in hospital settings that provide patient care at all hours of the day, which […]

Contrary to popular beliefs, health outcomes are driven only to a small degree by healthcare, and driven far more by what are called the “social determinants of health” (SDOH). Emergency physicians (EPs) are perfectly situated to provide both local and national leadership to recognize and address such social factors. There are many ways in which […]

Ketamine is a medication that can be utilized in the emergency department and prehospital setting for the sedation of the severely agitated patient. After an incident involving the misuse of prehospital ketamine received attention in the lay press, the safety and appropriateness of the prehospital use ketamine was brought into question. This clinical practice statement […]

Dear Speaker Johnson, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, and Leader Jeffries: The undersigned national medical organizations and state medical societies write to strongly urge Congress to quickly pass legislation to reverse the 3.37 percent Medicare physician payment cuts that took effect on January 1, 2024. Failure to reverse these cuts will be harmful to the continued […]

Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Johnson, and Minority Leader Jeffries: The undersigned national medical organizations and state medical societies write to strongly urge Congress to quickly pass legislation to stop another impending round of Medicare payment cuts. Absent Congressional intervention, physicians are facing a 3.37 percent payment reduction on January 1, 2024. […]

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) recently released a public statement in response to an announcement that a nurse practitioner was accepted into an Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Fellowship program.  We were specifically responding to the original statement by the program which when released stated, “his appointment as the ‘first-ever’ APRN to the Point-of-Care Ultrasound […]

Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Johnson, and Minority Leader Jeffries: On behalf of the 54 organizations representing physicians and other health care providers across the United States, we write to urge Congress to stop the 3.4% cut in Medicare physician payment that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently finalized […]

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine strives daily to live our mission statement.  Multiple parts of this statement refer to our strong and unwavering belief that all people must be treated equally with respect and without discrimination in any form. Current geopolitical events, most recently in the Middle East, but also in many other parts […]

Dear Deputy Administrator and Director Montz: As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), working on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services and together with the Departments of Labor and Treasury (collectively “the Departments”), continues to refine federal Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) processes required under the No Surprises Act (NSA), the […]

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) is dismayed to hear the news of the planned closure of the CHRISTUS Spohn Emergency Medicine Residency Program in Texas. Reports are that this decision was made by the CHRISTUS Spohn administration for financial reasons and without the involvement of the Emergency Medicine Residency Program leadership or of […]

The following statement was approved by the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) Board of Directors concerning the graduate medical education (GME) response to resident discrimination on Thursday, September 7, 2023. The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) believes that increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of emergency medicine is necessary to provide […]

On September 21, 2023, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that they filled suit against private-equity backed, physician-staffing company U.S. Anesthesia Partners, Inc. (USAP) in Texas. The FTC’s complaint alleges that USAP and Welsh Carson’s “multi-year anticompetitive scheme to consolidate anesthesia practices in Texas, drive up the price of anesthesia services provided to Texas patients, […]

Dear Attorney General Garland and Chair Khan: On behalf of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM), thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft update of the Merger Guidelines, issued on July 19, 2023. AAEM was established in 1993 to promote fair and equitable practice environments necessary to allow emergency physicians to […]

American Physician Partners (APP) recently announced they are ceasing business operations by the end of the month. Their announcement on July 17th gives hospitals and physicians only two weeks to ensure continued care for patients. This is reckless, unethical, and simply dangerous.  This is one more example of the untoward effects of private equity backed […]

Following the recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the consideration of an applicant’s racial or ethnic background in the higher education admissions process, our emergency medicine organizations stand together in our efforts to diversify health care professionals, including physicians, in the United States. Additionally, we reaffirm our responsibility to addressing health care disparities and inequities […]

It has come to our attention that Aetna has published a clinical policy bulletin on the medical necessity for ultrasound guidance on certain procedures. We have many concerns about the document as outlined below. Indeed, the evidence supporting ultrasound guidance to improve safety, benefits, and in some cases efficacy, is in fact strong. On behalf of our combined membership of >16,000 clinicians, we request a virtual meeting with you within the coming weeks to further discuss the policy. We hope to assist with more effective solutions that will NOT lead to unsafe care, low quality care, or increased barriers to care.

There is no question that Americans have suffered great loss of life and endured financial hardships, across all sectors, over the past 32 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontline healthcare workers risked their lives, provided care during physically and emotionally demanding situations, and bore witness to their patients’ goodbyes to loved ones from afar.

Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding and resulting delayed patient care is a rapidly growing worldwide problem leading to increased mortality and morbidity. (39,40,41) ED triage presents the first opportunity to promptly identify high-risk patients and efficiently allocate ED resources. Current ED triage systems have suboptimal ability to differentiate critically ill patients due to subtle signs or […]

Each year the emergency medicine (EM) community celebrates Match week, as we welcome another group of talented EM residents to our specialty. The 2022 EM Match saw an unprecedented initial 219 unmatched positions affecting one in four residency programs. The 2023 Match will see 555 initially unmatched positions, affecting a larger number of residency programs. […]

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) fully supports the Federal Trade Committee’s (FTC) proposed rule to ban noncompete clauses and appreciates the opportunity to comment. AAEM is the specialty society for board-certified emergency physicians, representing over 8,000 members across the nation. We enthusiastically agree with the FTC that the freedom to change jobs is […]

Sepsis is a dysregulated host response to infection that may progress to septic shock, a state of global hypoperfusion that often requires fluid resuscitation and vasopressors to support adequate oxygen delivery. Septic shock results in both macro- and microcirculatory failure, which ultimately progresses to multi-organ dysfunction and potentially death.(1,2) Depending on the patient population, mortality […]