Emergency department initiatives to improve the public health.

Each year, the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, the American College of Emergency Physicians, and the American Board of Emergency Medicine co-sponsor an educational session at the Association of ‘American Medical Colleges Annual Meeting. The 1997 session was entitled “Emergency Department Initiatives to Improve the Public Health,” and included presentations by 4 invited speakers: Dr. Lewis Goldfrank, Director of Emergency Medicine at Bellevue Hospital Center and New York University Medical Center; Dr. Dennis Andrulis, Director of the Office of Urban Populations at the New York Academy of Medicine; Dr. Robert D’Alessandri, Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine at West Virginia University; and Dr. Arthur Kellermann, Acting Chief of Emergency Medicine at Emory University. Each speaker focused on a particular aspect of emergency medicine and the health of the public. The following article summarizes some of the session’s ideas and themes.