Research

The Division of Health Policy and Public Health research priorities include:

Health Policy

The Division will develop a series of projects to evaluate health policy and effects of national and state legislation on patients, providers, and the health system.  With a focus on emergency healthcare delivery systems, the Division will both inform and examine the effects of healthcare legislation and inform future policy decision.

Division faculty has a broad range of funding sources, including the National Institutes of Health, the Emergency Medicine Foundation and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Quality of Care

The Division will focus on defining the quality of emergency medical care, including the effects of healthcare policy on quality of care, as well as the adoption and measurement of national quality standards

Patient Safety

In addition to the promotion of quality standards, patient safety initiatives in the emergency department will be addressed, including the identification of patient risk factors, reduction of medical error and risk of complications, informed consent, and effective tools for intra and inter-departmental communication and patient transfer.

Health Economics

Define and explore cost of care trends in emergency medicine and the value of emergency care,  focusing on high-cost conditions and high-risk patients.

Diagnostic Imaging and Testing

Division faculty will elucidate the underlying causes of variability of clinician use of diagnostic testing and imaging, and investigate the methods, cost and quality effects of standardizing practices around utilization of testing, including the role of diagnostic decisions support.

Information Technology

The adoption of electronic medical records and patient management systems provides a unique opportunity to utilize the electronic health record (EHR) as a decision-making tool. Division investigators focus on the cost and quality ramifications of EHR adoption. We also focus on large data tools, such as information exchanges and prescription drug monitoring programs.

Policy and Analysis

Division faculty often present their research and analytic findings to state and federal policy makers. This may take the form of formal presentations, such as providing expert testimony at Congressional hearings, or informal briefings and meetings with Congressional and Executive branch leaders.

The division influences local, regional and national policy through publication of research, representation on committees and national organizations and advising policymakers. Division faculty chair or serve on key committees for national organizations such as the American College of Emergency Physicians and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.