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Department of Emergency Medicine

Research Elective

EMER 7640 Research Elective

The research elective in emergency medicine seeks to create hands-on research opportunities for medical students while encouraging a broad perspective on the current research in emergency medicine at the University of Utah and in the larger medical community.

Career track in emergency medicine is not required for participation in the elective. The elective offers an introduction to medical research, regardless of intended career choice, and will expose students to research in a variety of specialties in addition to emergency medicine, including anesthesiology, cardiology, trauma and OB/Gyn. 

The student's primary role is to assist with current emergency department studies through a direct role in the identification, enrollment, and data acquisition of eligible emergency department patients. Students will schedule themselves for 40 hours total per week in the emergency department, during which hey will both enroll patients in prospective, intervention-based emergency department studies and assist with study follow-up and data acquisition. Students will be encouraged to attend emergency medicine journal club and the monthly emergency medicine research meeting. 

Additional opportunities exist for authorship on abstracts and papers, as well as presentation at regional and national emergency medicine conferences, depending on the student's level of interest and involvement. 

Prerequisites

The administrative program coordinator must be contacted prior to signing up for this elective.

Course Requirements

  • 2-4 week blocks 
  • 40 hours in ED per week (flexible hours) 
  • Monthly journal club and research meeting  (optional)

Requirements

Before registration, the student will be required to identify and contact a faculty member with an ongoing research project. After determining a research project assignment and goals with the designated faculty member, the student will notify the academic coordinator via email of the project and faculty member identified for the rotation. The student must be approved in order to register for the course in the Student Affairs Office.