Proceedings of the Future of Emergency Medicine Research Conference, Part I: Executive summary

The five articles presented in this section were written by representatives of the emergency medicine research community during the 'Future of Emergency Medicine Research Conference,' March 6 and 7, 1997, in Washington DC. Each presentation was balanced with commentary by two conference participants from outside emergency medicine. The discussion of each presentation was opened to scrutiny and analysis by all of the conference participants. The participants included representatives from governmental agencies and other clinical specialties with the experience and understanding of specialty research enhancement. The objectives and recommendations in this final summary are the result of considerable insight and discussion from all participants. The specialty of emergency medicine owes a special thanks to those from outside the specialty who volunteered their time and effort to share their wisdom with us. Although the 35 participants represent many points of view, not all potential viewpoints were included. Hence, there may be other actions that need to be taken by organizations and individuals to advance emergency medicine research. It is now the responsibility of each individual emergency physician to carefully consider his or her own role and commitment in the process of advancing emergency medicine research. Our collective will as academic departments and the organized emergency medicine community must reaf-firm our belief in the importance of emergency medicine research. Individually and collectively, we will need to dedicate the necessary resources to implement the strategies suggested for enhancing emergency medicine research training, extramural funding, national organizational support, multicenter research, and new research outcomes.