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The Department of Emergency Medicine began as an emergency and critical
care academic practice group within the Department of Internal Medicine
in the School of Medicine at what was then the Health Sciences Campus of
the University of Oregon. The campus evolved into a free-standing health
sciences university (i.e., the Oregon Health Sciences University) in 1974.
In 2001 following a merger with the Oregon Graduate Institute, the combined
campuses evolved into the Oregon Health & Science University.
The Division of Emergency Medicine, OHSU School of Medicine,
was established as the School of Medicine's first interdepartmental
division by the dean with the approval of the Faculty Council in
June 1977. For this purpose a charter was prepared by M. Roberts
Grover Jr., M.D., associate dean, School of Medicine, and John
Schriver, M.D., Emergency Department director.
The OHSU School of Medicine became the third U.S. medical school
to establish an independent academic emergency medicine entity.
John Schriver, M.D., was appointed head, Division of Emergency
Medicine, and director, Emergency Medical Services. The Oregon
Poison Center was established with toxicology oversight by the
emergency medicine unit in 1978 and remains an important academic
and service component of the department.
In April 1992 the academic unit became the Department of Emergency Medicine,
OHSU School of Medicine, under John Moorhead, M.D., M.S., who had helped
establish the Department's Emergency Medicine Residency Program in 1978.
The residency program is growing into a three-year, 24-resident program.
Training sites include OHSU Hospital, the Portland Veteran's Affairs
Medical Center, St. Vincent's Hospital and Emanuel Hospital. The
combined patient volume at these sites exceeds 150,000 patient visits per year.
After assuming the role of acting chairman of the Department in October 1997,
Jerris Hedges, M.D., M.S., became the departmental chairman in July 1998.
Dr. Hedges had previously served as the department's vice chairman and
director of research programs. He was inducted into the National
Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine in October 2000.
The department has been active since 1991 in the investigation of regional
patient outcomes following trauma. The department's Centers for Disease Control-sponsored
research program is a collaboration with the Department of Surgery's Trauma Program. The
program has demonstrated the value of the Oregon State Trauma Program, one of only a
handful of statewide trauma networks. The research team has provided key research
methodology guiding the evaluation of trauma systems.
The department has participated in a number of out-of-hospital scientific
investigations. These include the National Institutes of Health sponsored
Rapid Early Action for Coronary Treatment (REACT) study and the Public
Access to Defibrillation (PAD) study.
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