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Arjun Venkatesh, MD, MBA, MHS

Professor of Emergency Medicine
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Additional Titles

Chair, Emergency Medicine

Scientist, Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Internal Medicine

About

The Yale Department of Emergency Medicine advances the science and practice of emergency medicine care as we continue to push the envelope of science and advocate for our patients and communities.

Titles

Professor of Emergency Medicine

Chair, Emergency Medicine; Scientist, Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Internal Medicine

Biography

Dr. Venkatesh is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale University. He is also Scientist at the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. He has been funded by the NIH, AHRQ, and the Emergency Medicine Foundation to study health system outcomes and efficiency, and he is supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as co-Principal Investigator of the Emergency Quality Network (E-QUAL) and for the development of the Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings. He has received over $6 million in grant funding and published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and is senior editor of The Evidence book series. He is national leader within ACEP and SAEM and he serves on expert panels for the National Quality Forum (NQF), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and CMS. His work is also funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Addiction Policy Forum to advance the quality and delivery of emergency and acute care for opioid use disorder.

Dr. Venkatesh earned his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University. He went on to earn an MBA from Ohio State University before completing medical school at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Most recently he completed Emergency Medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program here at Yale University. He is originally from Dayton, OH and resides in New Haven.

Appointments

Other Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

RWJF Clinical Scholar
Yale University School of medicine (2014)
MHS
Yale University School of Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program (2014)
Resident
Brigham and Women's Hospital-Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency (2012)
MD
Northwestern University The Feinberg School of Med (2008)
MBA
The Ohio State University, Finance (2004)
BS
Northwestern Univeristy, Communication Science and Disorders (2002)

Research

Overview

Medical Research Interests

Costs and Cost Analysis; Emergency Medicine; Evidence-Based Emergency Medicine; Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation; Health Services Research

Public Health Interests

Health Care Quality, Efficiency; Health Care Management; Health Economics; Health Policy; Health Systems Reform

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Arjun Venkatesh's published research.

Publications

2024

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

  • activity

    American College of Emergency Physicians

  • activity

    National Quality Forum Health and Well Being Steering Committee

  • honor

    Mid-Career Research Award

  • honor

    Young Investigator Award

  • honor

    Top New Reviewer

Clinical Care

Overview

Arjun Venkatesh, MD, MBA, MHS, is chair of Emergency Medicine for Yale School of Medicine (YSM) and chief of Emergency Medicine for Yale New Haven Hospital. He is trained to treat acute emergency conditions. The most common of those are what he describes as the “big five conditions for which minutes matter,” including heart attack, stroke, cardiac arrest, trauma, and sepsis.

Choosing to pursue emergency medicine was difficult, says Dr. Venkatesh, explaining that he knew it would involve working evenings, overnights, weekends, and holidays since people have emergencies at all times. “But it offered me the opportunity to care for patients at their greatest or most critical time of need—and it fed my curiosity with new diagnostic puzzles to solve every day,” he says. It also allowed him to provide care in the health care safety net and work to improve health equity, he adds.

Dr. Venkatesh says visiting the emergency department (ED) can be hard for patients. Time-sensitive diagnostic tests and treatments required for some conditions can make any experience there feel chaotic and rushed. “I try to make patients feel comfortable with simple but important gestures, including listening to their personal story, offering to update family or loved ones who may not be in the ED, or by just offering a ginger ale or warm blanket,” he says.

In addition to caring for patients in emergency medicine, Dr. Venkatesh is an associate professor at Yale School of Medicine and a scientist at the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) at Yale. His laboratory at Yale includes a multidisciplinary team of implementation experts and investigators who focus on improving the quality and value of emergency and acute care by expanding access, translating knowledge into effectiveness, improving affordability, and reducing disparities.

In addition, Dr. Venkatesh serves as the principal investigator of the American College of Emergency Physicians Emergency Quality Network, a quality improvement and learning network of more than 1,500 emergency departments and 25,000 emergency physicians. His scholarship has informed numerous emergency and acute care quality measurement standards in federal programs, including the Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings. He has published approximately 200 peer-reviewed studies and federal technical reports focused on the quality and value of health care delivery.

Clinical Specialties

Emergency Medicine

Board Certifications

  • Emergency Medicine

    Certification Organization
    AB of Emergency Medicine
    Original Certification Date
    2013

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