Research
Welcome to research at Western Emergency Medicine!
The goal of the research program is to help residents and faculty navigate all aspects of their projects, from the inception of the idea to dissemination of results. Conducting research can sometimes be a complicated endeavour! Scholarly activities are a mandatory component of both the Royal College (FRCPC) and Family Medicine Enhanced Skills (ESEM) programs. In addition to this, scholarly pursuits are encouraged for faculty members, be it through pursuing a clinician researcher or scientist career path, supervising resident research, filling in data collection forms, or helping to identify potential research participants.
Particular areas of strength within our research program include EMS/paramedicine, POCUS, diabetes care in the ED, pediatric pain, sports medicine, simulation and gender equity. We also welcome projects in diverse areas of emergency department and paramedicine clinical systems as well as education scholarships.
Residents are supported in their scholarly endeavours in a number of ways. FRCPC residents are encouraged to choose one larger project early in their residency that can be developed and completed over 3 to 5 years. Those residents with a greater interest are encouraged to also conduct several smaller projects throughout their five year residency. CCFP-EM residents have more limited time to spend on research and are encouraged to complete a smaller scale project (i.e. chart review or survey) that can be completed in their short one year with us. Research projects may be in any field related to emergency medicine including, but not limited to: medical education, pre-hospital medicine, medical administration, trauma and resuscitation, POCUS or clinical decision making.
There are a few opportunities for financial support internal to Western EM as well as a resident writing award for the top submitted abstract each year.
There are many ways faculty can support and be involved in research at WesternEM. In addition to the core group of faculty who will pursue an ARC of clinician researcher, there are a partial funding positions for project based researchers. Faculty who do not have protected research time but wish to support individual projects as site PI or as resident/student supervisors can also be rewarded through a points-based system. The research office provides some support and guidance. There are local research grants and an internal research grant as well as funding for knowledge translation eg conference support.
We welcome the opportunity to support undergraduate medical students through their research or quality assurance experiential learning courses.
We are happy to provide support for graduate students interested in health care eg health care administration, industrial engineering,
