Emergency Medicine - YSM's 28th Department

Dean Robert J. Alpern

At its June meeting, the Yale Corporation voted to grant departmental status to the Section of Emergency Medicine, which has been a part of the Department of Surgery since its creation in 1991. This new status, which reflects both the increased stature of the Yale section and the maturation of emergency medicine as an academic discipline, will become effective July 1, with current Section Chief Gail D'Onofrio, M.D., continuing to lead as chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine.

The corporation's action follows the recommendation of a medical school faculty committee that met during the fall of 2008 to evaluate this issue. Headed by Margaret K. Hostetter, M.D., the Jean McLean Wallace Professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics, the committee interviewed relevant faculty members and senior administrators of the School of Medicine, and evaluated the national stature of the section in research, teaching, and clinical service. It recommended unanimously that the section had met the standards for academic and programmatic importance and was ready to be elevated to departmental status under Dr. D'Onofrio's leadership.

Emergency medicine will become the 28th academic department at the school. Since the emergency section's creation in 1991, it has grown in size from five to 33 faculty members, who have responsibility for 72,500 patient visits per year at Yale-New Haven Hospital and 21,600 visits annually at the Yale-New Haven Shoreline Medical Center in Guilford. Emergency medicine has emerged as a distinct discipline during the past two decades, and 83 percent of all emergency medicine programs nationally are located within independent departments.

Dr. D'Onofrio is a national leader in the field of emergency medicine and heads an active, NIH-funded research program in the area of screening and intervention for alcohol and drug abuse. The structured curriculum in this area that she developed has been endorsed by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) as part of a strategic plan to train the staffs of emergency departments across the country. She has also served as a senior investigator on a study of young women with myocardial infarctions at more than 80 sites nationally.

Dr. D'Onofrio holds a B.S. degree from Duke and an M.S. degree in nursing from Boston University (BU). After eight years as a staff nurse in both general and thoracic surgery, and as a clinical specialist in intensive care, she earned an M.D. degree from BU, followed by residency training in emergency medicine at Boston City Hospital. She spent four years on the emergency medicine faculty at BU before being recruited to Yale in 1996. She was promoted to associate professor in 1998 and to full professor in 2006, after being named chief of the section the previous year. Dr. D'Onofrio has received numerous national honors, including the Education and Prevention of Alcohol Award by the National Commission Against Drunk Driving, the National Clinical Champion Award from the Women's Heart Advantage Program, and the Excellence in Mentoring Award from the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse. 

Among the 33 full-time members of the Section of Emergency Medicine are three full professors, five associate professors, 20 assistant professors, and five instructors. Several senior faculty have achieved national recognition for their research and teaching. In addition to Dr. D'Onofrio, her colleague David Cone, M.D., is the editor-in-chief of Academic Emergency Medicine and past president of the National Association of EMS Physicians; Linda Degutis, Dr.P.H., is past president of the American Public Health Association; and Mary Bogucki, M.D., chairs the board of the National Registry of EMTs. Junior faculty member Christopher Moore, M.D., recently won the Teacher of the Year Award from the ACEP.

I would also like to express the school's gratitude to the Department of Surgery and its chair, Dr. Robert Udelsman, who facilitated the evolution of the section to a level of excellence worthy of departmental status.

This   is a momentous occasion for our colleagues in Emergency Medicine. Please join me   in congratulating them all.

Sincerely,

Dean Robert J. Alpern, M.D.
Ensign Professor of Medicine