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Emergency Medicine Achieves Department Status at University of Utah Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine

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February 2, 2022 – Salt Lake City, Utah -- Emergency Medicine is the newest department at University of Utah’s Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine. Previously a division within the Department of Surgery, the Department of Emergency Medicine becomes the 23rd department in the school. To transition from division to department status, Emergency Medicine successfully achieved specific requirements in education, research, and clinical care, and received formal approvals from the School of Medicine Executive Committee, the Academic Senate, and the university’s Board of Trustees.

"We are deeply appreciative of the hard work of our faculty, and the support of our colleagues throughout the School of Medicine who helped to make the transition to Department of Emergency Medicine a reality," says Christy Hopkins, MD, MBA, MPH, who will serve as Interim Department Chair and Medical Director of Integrated Emergency Services at University of Utah Health "We look forward to using this opportunity to bolster future research endeavors, expand EM training programs and undergraduate medical education efforts, and deepen our commitment to provide compassionate emergency care to patients throughout the Mountain west."

Achieving departmental status will help raise the department’s national prominence and increase its ability to compete at the highest levels for recruitment, retention, collaboration, and extramural research funding.

Providing a vital safety net, Emergency Medicine cares for over 80,000 patients annually in Utah and Wyoming. Through EMS directorships, the department serves over 1.2 million people in the Salt Lake Valley and provides air medical support to the largest regional catchment area in the United States. The department’s prehospital reach ensures that exceptional care begins even before patients arrive at the hospital.

Strong partnerships with Surgery, Neurology, Neurosurgery and Cardiovascular services optimize care for patients with life altering injuries, or neurovascular and cardiac events. A diverse, innovative, fellowship-trained faculty brings a wide range of expertise to Emergency Medicine, including point-of-care ultrasound, global medicine, palliative care, wilderness medicine, toxicology, clinical trials, and translational resuscitation research.