The Department of Emergency Medicine (EM) at the University of North Carolina has an active multi-disciplinary research agenda. The faculty has diverse research interests including basic science, health informatics, EMS systems, health services, medical education and patient-based clinical research. The department brings in over $4.5 million annually in external funding and is one of the premiere emergency departments in the world for studying emergency health informatics.
Click on any of the tabs at the left to further explore the individual research interests of our faculty or visit any of our centers or programs for more information.
The department has six major divisions of research, which operate synergistically to improve emergency medical care.
EMS
The NC State EMS Performance Improvement Center and the Pre-Hospital Medical Information System which is located on site, concentrates on research related to EMS systems and time sensitive diseases. This unique North Carolina EMS Data System consists of four integrated applications: pre-hospital medical information system (PreMIS), EMS performance improvement toolkits, credentialing information system (CIS) and state medical asset resource tracking tool (SMARTT).
Health Informatics
The North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiological Collection Tool (NC DETECT), which has been developed by the Division of Informatics to provide data and analysis tools for public health surveillance in North Carolina. NC DETECT utilizes data from several sources, including PreMIS and the North Carolina Emergency Department Database (NCEDD) that was developed by faculty and staff in our department.
Basic Science
Basic Science Research which includes the EM Translational Research Laboratories performing basic research emphasizing cardiac and cerebral resuscitation hemorrhagic shock and the TRYUMPH Research Program which is aimed at improving recovery after traumatic events such as motor vehicle collision, sexual assault, and burn injury.
Clinical
The Clinical Research program conducts studies in several areas including innovative ways to enhance care for geriatrics patients, advanced diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for suspected pneumonia, sepsis, trauma and burns and novel studies for detection and characterization of host responses to viral and other stressors.
Health Services
Health Services Research focuses on determinants of health care quality, including the role of organizational structure and systems management, physician behaviors, and financial incentives.
Epidemiology
Epidemiology at UNC provides emergency physicians with a foundation for practicing evidence-based medicine and for rational decision making at the bedside. Epidemiological methods are used to conduct a wide-variety of observational and interventional clinical research studies in the ED and EMS settings. Evaluations are conducted on the impact of emergency medical processes on the health of individual patients as well as on the well-being of geographically and ethnically diverse populations in North Carolina. The goal of current research is to optimize standards of acute care for patients with myocardial infarction, stroke, trauma, and acute respiratory diseases.
We always strive for making progress through research and making our findings public. Here we publish over 50 publications per year, from over 15 staff members, from subjects like the effects on the body from the common flu to time trends and risk factors for brain cancer patients.
Click on any of the names to search the PubMed web site for publications.
UNC School of Medicine
