Welcome from the Vice Chair of Education

“The discovery of knowledge means nothing without individuals who can synthesize, simplify, and disseminate that knowledge to the masses. Those individuals, we call 'teachers,' and they represent the great hope for the future success of our profession. We entrust our scientists to discover the world, but our teachers to change it.”

Education is at the core of our Department's mission. Our faculty are some of the most dedicated leaders and brightest minds in Emergency Medicine. And we are proud to foster a culture of continuous learning that is, simply and unequivocally, unmatched.

In addition to focusing on the scientific, medical, and technical competencies of emergency medicine, we also emphasize the leadership and humanity skills required to excel in our specialty. After graduating from our programs, our alumni have gone on to become renowned physicians, educators, researchers, administrators, innovators, and leaders in our field.   

Our comprehensive training curriculum is tailored to learners at every end of the educational spectrum—from medical students, to residents, fellows, and faculty.

Medical Student Training

Over the years our faculty have trained thousands of undergraduate medical students. All third-year students are now required to participate in a four-week clerkship rotation in Emergency Medicine (EMER530), which includes a procedure lab, suture lab, splint lab, and ultrasound lab, in addition to clinical shifts, weekly conferences, and other special events and offerings.

Residency Training

Our residency curriculum boasts innovative educational curricula, including those focused on risk management, critical care, cadaver-based procedure and airway skills, geriatric EM, simulation, leadership, advanced electrocardiography and cardiology, and a unique reading curriculum based in cutting-edge research.

We offer a 3-year categorical Emergency Medicine residency training program, as well as combined residencies with both Pediatrics and Internal Medicine. Residents in our combined Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine program may also pursue an additional year-long pathway in Critical Care, leading to a triple residency in EM/IM/CC.

Regardless of which program our residents pursue, they all receive outstanding clinical and academic training. Our residents conduct research, write manuscripts, and participate in committees; they also gain experience in ED leadership through our unique didactic curriculum. 

Fellowship Programs

To encourage graduating residents and junior faculty in their academic and professional pursuits, we offer specialized fellowships that combine clinical practice with advanced learning.

In recent years, we’ve created fellowships in emergency cardiovascular medicine, faculty development, health policy and leadership, simulation, and ultrasound. In the near future, we hope to create fellowships in hyperbarics/undersea medicine, research, EMS, and emergency geriatrics.

 Our fellowships are tailor-made to suit an individual’s interests and future career goals, and they are directed by members of our faculty who have already developed their careers in those respective areas.

Faculty Development

Our Department is devoted to helping faculty members advance clinically and academically, and I am personally committed to ensuring all of our faculty—especially our junior faculty—have the resources they need to succeed.

Faculty members have numerous opportunities to attend local and national courses that focus on teaching, writing, and research skills. Every year, we sponsor 4-5 junior faculty to attend the ACEP Teaching Fellowship in Dallas; we now have more Teaching Fellowship graduates than any other academic EM Department in the country. 

Faculty are also encouraged to engage in local and national service activities to further their academic development and network with peers at other institutions. Opportunities for textbook editing, journal writing and editing, and research collaboration abound.

You would be hard-pressed to find any other Department more involved in national and international lecturing; faculty development promotion; or textbook publication. In the past year alone, our faculty have received some of the highest, national- and international-level awards for contributions to EM education and leadership.

There is much more to say, but I’ll leave it at this: our Department has and always will be a special place for Emergency Medicine education…fostering a community of learners and educators who define the future of our specialty shift-by-shift, lecture-by-lecture, manuscript-by-manuscript.

Amal Mattu, MD
Distinguished University Professor and Vice Chair of Education
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Maryland School of Medicine

 

“In a truly civilized society, the very best of us would be teachers and all the rest would have to settle for something less. For only in a truly civilized society would there be the recognition that there is no profession of greater importance than one in which the sole purpose of its members is to pass the knowledge of a civilization from one generation to the next.”

Lee Iacocca