Em. Med. Annual Report 2011 - Hennepin County Medical Center

development on the civilian front was a very time
consuming undertaking as was ED management.
Many academic trauma surgeons, already
over-committed to their surgical services, readily
relinquished their positions in the society as
emergency physicians got involved. UA/EMS
became UAEM in 1976 when David Wagner, Chair
of EM at the Medical College of Pennsylvania was
President and the membership was mostly
emergency physicians affiliated with EM
residencies. UAEM, with Ernest Ruiz of HCMC as
President and the Society of Teachers of
Emergency Medicine (STEM), with Mary Ann
Cooper of the University of Illinois as President,
joined in 1989 to form the Society for Academic
Emergency Medicine (SAEM). SAEM is the
research arm of emergency medicine. SAEM
hosts an annual meeting featuring research
presentations attended by about 1,700 residents,
faculty, students, and others. EMS advances and
EMS research remain vital interests among
SAEM members.
Well Earned Respect
Emergency physicians were considered itinerant
know-nothings by the elite of some specialties in
the sixties. Board status was needed for
emergency medicine. ACEP appointed members
to a committee on board establishment in 1974.
This group worked with the American Board of
Medical Specialties (ABMS) to gain acceptance as
a primary board. Committee member Peter Rosen,
EM Director at the University of Chicago and a
staunch enemy of dishonesty, famously answered
endless wavering from the specialties with blunt
invective. Nevertheless, progress was painfully
slow. The first step was to develop and administer
an oral and written examination designed to certify
an emergency physician capable of making good
decisions in any emergency situation. This test
developed by UAEM and ACEP members was to
be the American Board of Emergency Medicine
(ABEM) examination. It was successfully
administered in 1980 and those who passed it
became board certified by an EM "Conjoint
Board." An important step was the publishing by
ACEP in 1979 of Emergency Medicine, a
Comprehensive Study Guide, the brainchild of
Judith E. Tintinalli, EM Residency Director at
Wayne State/Detroit Receiving. The test takers
were expected to be knowledgeable of all
emergencies across all specialties and this text
made board preparation a feasible task. Ronald
Krome, Director of EM at Wayne State/Detroit
Receiving and Ruiz were co-editors of the 2nd
edition with Tintinalli. Several HCMC EM, surgery,
neurosurgery, and medicine staff members
contributed chapters. Finally, Primary Board Status
in the ABMS was obtained in 1989, while Joseph
Clinton, then Assistant Chief of EM at HCMC, was
President of ABEM.
Ref: Zink, Brian J: Anyone, anything, anytime: a history of
emergency medicine, Philadelphia, 2006, Mosby, Inc.
Busy Hennepin County General Hospital Emergency
Department, 1950-1967
Department of Emergency Medicine Activities Report | 2009-2010 | 7