“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.”
Department Vice Chairman
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to introduce you to the teaching programs at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine. Teaching represents the most important aspect of our academic mission, the very core of why we as faculty are here, and the foundation of how our Department has grown since the 1980s. There are four major sections of our teaching program that I’ll discuss. The following will provide only a brief introduction to each.
The Emergency Medicine Residency Training Program began in 1991 as a 3-year program. In 1994 our residency expanded to include a 5-year combined Emergency Medicine/Pediatrics Program and 2 years later we started a 5-year combined Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine Program. Ours is the only residency in the United States that hosts all three of these programs, and several years ago we also added a 6th year Critical Care addition to the EM/IM program, giving us one of the only EM/IM/CC Programs in the country. This expansion of the residency has been fueled by the tremendous learning opportunities and educational expertise of the faculty.
Regardless of in which of the programs our residents train, they all receive outstanding clinical and academic training. Academic development in particular is very strongly fostered during the training years. Residents receive training in teaching skills and have numerous opportunities to learn how to conduct research, write manuscripts and participate in committees at the local and national level, and all residents gain experience in ED leadership through the didactic curriculum. The overall result of the academic development mentoring has been profound: numerous residents have moved on to become ED chairs and clinical directors, residency directors, national leaders in EM organizations, recipients of national and local teaching awards, textbook editors, and nationally and internationally-invited conference speakers, all in addition to gaining superb clinical skills.
The residency curriculum boasts many innovative educational curricula, including curricula focused on risk management, critical care, cadaver-based procedure and airway skills, geriatric EM, simulation, leadership, advanced electrocardiography and cardiology, and a reading curriculum that remains the only one of its kind since 1999.
The Emergency Medicine Residency was the first residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center to receive a 7-year accreditation cycle (in 2004), and the leadership is the only in the country to be recipient of Program Director of the Year awards from both the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association and from the American Academy of Emergency Medicine’s Resident and Student Association. These honors are the direct result of the commitment of the faculty and leadership to teaching residents.
Since the mid-1980s when our faculty began working in the ED at the Medical Center, medical student training has been an integral component of the clinical practice. Thousands of University of Maryland School of Medicine students have received training in acute care medicine in our Department. The student curriculum has evolved to include core knowledge lectures and discussions, simulation sessions, cadaver-lab based procedure teaching, and participation in the residency didactic sessions. The clinical experience that the students receive is frequently rated amongst the most valuable of all clinical experiences because of the patient care opportunities as well as the teaching the students receive from faculty and senior residents. Although not currently a required senior-year rotation, EM is the second most popular elective chosen by senior medical students at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Many faculty members in every specialty at institutions around the country lament the lack of faculty development training and mentoring at their own institutions. Our Department, however, is devoted to helping faculty members advance clinically and academically. Faculty members have numerous opportunities to attend, and are strongly encouraged to attend, local and national courses that focus on teaching, writing, and research skills. We use Department funds to sponsor 4-5 members of the junior faculty to attend the ACEP Teaching Fellowship in Dallas every year, and 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 such as committee work in order to further their academic development and have opportunities for networking and collaboration. Opportunities for textbook editing, journal writing and editing, and research collaboration abound. Senior members of our faculty are intimately involved in faculty development courses on campus as well as within the American College of Emergency Medicine, the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine, and international faculty development courses. Senior faculty members also coordinate many national and international Continuing Medical Education (CME) conferences, which gives our own faculty opportunities to speak at major conferences. You would be hard-pressed to find any other faculty in the country that is more involved in national and international lecturing; faculty development promotion; or textbook publication. Our faculty has received more than a dozen national awards for work in faculty development and for contributions to EM education.
We consider fellowships to be an outstanding avenue to continued academic development of our junior faculty. As a result, we have continually strived to encourage graduating residents and junior faculty to participate in fellowships, and we’ve “put our money where our mouth is” by creating fellowships for them. In recent years, we’ve created fellowships in emergency medicine services, critical care, ultrasound, research, administration, EM, teaching, faculty development, and emergency cardiology. In the near future, we hope to create fellowships in hyperbarics/undersea medicine, simulation, and emergency geriatrics. Our fellowships are usually tailor-made to suit an individual’s interests and future career goals, and they are primarily directed by members of our faculty that have already developed their careers in those respective areas.
At this point, I realize I could continue describing our educational programs and our zest for teaching indefinitely, and yet I will still have only scratched the surface. I have not discussed the fellowship programs in detail, nor have I discussed our CME courses, our international teaching programs or our international affiliations that are bringing trainees to our own institution, etc. etc. etc. I invite you to discover many of our other educational programs and plans on other sections of this extensive website. And I’ll leave you with a quote that truly describes what we believe regarding the importance of education and teaching. My sincere thanks for your time and interest!
Amal Mattu, MD
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
The University of Maryland hosts three Emergency Medicine residencies. A 3 year categorical Emergency Medicine program and two five year programs: Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine/Pediatrics.
The Department of Emergency Medicine has several opportunities available for medical students. Rotations are available at the University of Maryland and Mercy Medical Center.
The Department of Emergency Medicine currently offers fellowships in Administration, Ultrasound, Cardiovascular Emergencies, Research and Teaching.
The Department of Emergency Medicine hosts several CME events during the year to include an International Teaching Fellowship, Ultrasound course, Critical Procedures Course, and the Crashing Patient course.