Emergency Medicine

Message from the Chair

Tanski Mary_19_250

Welcome to the Department of Emergency Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University! The OHSU ED is a tertiary care referral center, a Level 1 Trauma Center, and an accredited cardiovascular and stroke center. We have a dedicated pediatric emergency department and are a Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center in collaboration with Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. The OHSU DEM provides physician and Advanced Practice Provider staffing for three community hospital partners, Columbia Memorial in Astoria OR, Hillsboro Medical Center in Hillsboro OR, and Adventist Medical Center in SE Portland. Together, our team delivers comprehensive, compassionate emergency care for a wide variety of patients across the state of Oregon and beyond, and works diligently to fulfill our three missions of clinical care, education, and research. I am so proud to be a part of this passionate, dedicated team!

Education
The DEM is extremely active in teaching and education. We provide undergraduate medical education rotations in emergency medicine and emergency medicine subspecialties to OHSU and visiting medical students, and sponsor an exceptional PGY 1-3 Emergency Medicine Residency Program that was first established in 1978. Our residents come from diverse backgrounds across the country and many stay in Oregon after graduation serving the community they now call home. The department offers 7 competitive fellowship programs in education, research, administration, toxicology, ultrasound, pediatric emergency medicine, and wilderness medicine. Our faculty is active and engaged in teaching in the school of medicine, the residency program, fellowships, as well as in the division of healthcare management.

Research
The DEM has a nationally renowned research program that includes two research centers. Since 2012, it has ranked in the top ten departments of emergency medicine in annual research funding from the National Institutes of Health. OHSU’s Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine (CPR-EM) was established in 2003 and coordinates emergency medicine research and guides health care policy. It features several full-time faculty members with diverse backgrounds in medicine, public health, epidemiology, economics, and statistics. CPR-EM works closely with the Center for Health Systems Effectiveness (CHSE), which focuses on health systems and health policy questions with particular emphasis on health economics and health care spending.

EMS Support
The OHSU DEM has provided leadership within the regional EMS community for over 20 years. Within the Portland tri-county area, three regional EMS medical directors are members of the OHSU DEM faculty while several others are affiliate faculty members. DEM faculty members provide didactic and experiential EMS education for the OHSU EM residents, have spearheaded innovative federally funded, multi-center EMS research projects and have become national leaders in EMS research.

Oregon Poison Center
The Oregon Poison Center was established by an act of the Oregon Legislature and is housed and managed through the DEM. A board-certified Medical Toxicologist from the DEM is on call 24 hours-a-day to respond to complex toxicologic cases and discuss cases with referring physicians. The Oregon Poison Center hosts a wide variety of learners and provides professional education for health care providers throughout Oregon.

The OHSU DEM provides phenomenal opportunities to care for patients, to teach and learn, and to participate in research that advances patient care.  We look forward to continued growth and development and look forward to meeting you!

Sincerely,
Mary E. Tanski M.D., M.B.A.
Department Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine
Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine
Oregon Health & Science University