Social Emergency Medicine Fellowship

Our two-year post-graduate fellowship trains fellows to be leaders in the field of Social Emergency Medicine. Fellow graduates may develop careers in policy, advocacy, research, and/or education that work to address health inequities, systematically address root causes of illness, and bridge emergency care to community and population health.

The University of Illinois Chicago Department of Emergency Medicine is a leader in the field of Social Emergency Medicine by “passionately promoting health for anyone at any time in any place through innovative emergency medicine.”

With a vision for health equity, we are engaged in research to promote prevention (e.g. AHEAD2, CTOUCH), initiatives to address Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) and health risk factors (e.g. Better Health Through Housing, Project HEAL), community engagement and education activities (e.g. IL Heart Rescue, CHAMPIONS NETWork), and local (e.g. Chicago Board of Health, AIDS Foundation of Chicago), state (e.g. Illinois Maternal Mortality Committee), and national policy and advocacy efforts to use our position in Emergency Medicine as society’s medical and social safety net, to develop systematic community-based interventions that will improve health for all.

Fellowship Goals

  1.  Apply SEM knowledge and skills in the clinical care of emergency patients.
  2.  Understand and apply the concepts of public and community health to better meet the complex needs of patients with acute illness and injury.
  3.  Develop the ability to assess health systems and emergency medical care and identify pertinent health issues to aid in the design of health programs that address identified needs.
  4.  Develop the knowledge and skills to educate students, trainees, and faculty on concepts in SEM that will help build an EM workforce that can better address SDoH and community health and improve illness prevention and health equity.
  5.  Establish a network for educational exchange, research, and funding in the field of SEM.
  6.  Develop administrative skills to organize and implement SEM programs and integrate them into existing health systems.

Program Structure

Fellows obtain their Master of Public Health or another advanced degree while working clinically and participating in numerous social EM initiatives. Fellows are mentored by faculty from the Department of Emergency Medicine and multi-disciplinary faculty from UI Health, the UI College of Medicine, and the UIC School of Public Health. The structure of the fellowship is primarily divided into seven general areas:

Core Components of Fellowship

The Fellow will work as a clinical faculty with an academic appointment (Clinical Instructor) in the Emergency Department at UI Health and affiliated hospital sites. The Fellow will be responsible for clinical work in the ED, clinical training, and supervision of medical students and residents. Clinical duty hours required are 576 annually or approximately 12 hours per week.

In addition to direct patient care, Fellows will gain exposure to emergency patient health issues from a health delivery perspective, a greater understanding of urban populations and motivations for seeking care, and knowledge surrounding challenges in navigating the U.S. health system at urban academic hospitals. Fellows will also gain experience working with vulnerable communities, including immigrant populations; limited English proficient patients; patients experiencing homelessness, food insecurity, substance use disorders, financial insecurity, un- or underinsured, and victims of intimate partner violence or abuse.

The Fellow will complete a Master in Public Health (MPH) or a similar advanced degree related to social EM, e.g., MS in Clinical and Translational Science at the UIC School of Public Health. The Masters concentration could include Community Health Sciences, Health Policy and Administration, Public Health Informatics, Maternal and Child Health, and others.

As part of the MPH degree, Fellows must complete an Applied Practice Experience and an Integrative Learning Experience that may take many forms, such as a policy brief, evaluation/research report, community health assessment, program evaluation, strategic plan, or intervention plan, in an area related to social EM and public health.

Through MPH coursework, Fellows will additionally gain experience working in interdisciplinary teams, which is essential for future practice in Social Emergency Medicine. Fellows are responsible for applying to the MPH program through the UIC School of Public Health and are eligible for the slightly shortened Professional Enhancement Program, which requires 43 credit hours for completion. 

Fellows will also participate in monthly journal club review and discussions with the national SAEM/ACEP Social EM Journal Club.

The UIC Department of Emergency Medicine has a robust research program, including many funded grant studies, of which the vast majority are related to Social Emergency Medicine, emphasizing disease screening and prevention, investigating social determinants of health, and designing systemic interventions to improve community and population health. Current studies and proposals include those investigating substance use disorder, homelessness, chronic disease screening and prevention, cardiovascular disease and risk factors, including diabetes and uncontrolled hypertension, sickle cell disease, and health disparities and COVID. In addition, there are numerous additional active research projects at UI Health/UICOM related to Social EM.

Research skills are critical in Social EM to build knowledge of effective interventions that address community health and the social determinants of health. Social EM fellows will participate in a research project by either developing an original idea into a project or working on a section of an ongoing project. Fellows will also have opportunities to participate in grant writing, writing IRB applications, project design and implementation, data collection and analysis, and manuscript writing.

Fellows will develop and submit an abstract on a Social EM research topic to a national conference.

UI Health faculty serve in leadership positions with the Chicago Department of Public Health and numerous policy and advocacy organizations, including the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians (ICEP), the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). 

Fellows will participate in Social EM committee work with a policy or advocacy organization to develop leadership, communication, education, and advocacy skills for practice changes related to Social EM. 

Fellows will additionally receive training in writing Op-Eds and will write an Op-Ed, which could be published on “Viewpoints” or create a podcast for “Announce” (both platforms carried on SocialEMpact.com).

As teaching faculty in a large residency program, Fellows will be required to work directly with UIC Emergency Medicine Social EM track residents to plan, develop, and deliver educational content related to social EM. This may include case studies, lectures, simulation sessions, FOAM materials, or other scholarly products to educate trainees on the tenets of Social EM to ensure that all UIC EM trainees will have the foundational knowledge of Social EM topics. Fellows must also work with residents to develop an annual Social EM-focused journal club. Additionally, Fellows can teach UI COM medical students via medical colloquia workshops or partnering with Simulation and Integrative Learning (SAIL) Center staff.

Given the community-based focus of Social EM, to foster community engagement between UI Health and surrounding communities and better understand first-hand the SDoH affecting UI Health emergency patients, Fellows will work in a community-based project or with a community-based organization addressing a topic related to Social EM. Current initiatives include Illinois Heart Rescue, the Community Health And eMPowerment through Integration Of Neighborhood-specific Strategies using a Novel Education & Technology-leveraged Workforce (CHAMPIONS NETWork), the Night Ministry, Chicago Street Medicine, numerous programs with the UIC Office of Community Engagement and Neighborhood Health Partnerships (OCEAN), or others.

UI Health has instituted a social determinants screening tool using Epic, UI Health’s electronic health record. The Department of Emergency Medicine also has a quality improvement (QI) team along with social workers, care coordinators, and discharge planners to assist with issues affecting emergency patients, including home health needs like access to prescription medications, medical supplies, and medical hardware; transport needs; access to outpatient services, etc.

Utilizing these resources, Fellows will investigate, design, and implement a systems-based practice initiative in an area of Social Emergency Medicine designed to improve quality care for UI Health emergency patients.

Duration

The fellowship is a two-year program which incorporates the advanced degree, clinical and teaching responsibilities, social EM research, social EM project-based and community engagement work as above. A one+ year fellowship is possible for those that have already received their MPH degree at the discretion of the Fellowship Director.

Eligibility

The UIC Social Emergency Medicine fellowship accepts ABEM board-certified or board-eligible emergency physicians who are U.S. citizens, have permanent resident status, or are DACA recipients.

Application Process

Interested applicants should send an electronic copy of: 

  1.  A letter of intent (this should be one-page describing why you seek a SEM Fellowship at UIC and what makes you a good fit for this program)
  2.  A personal statement (this should describe your interest and background in Social EM)
  3.  A curriculum vitae 
  4.  Three letters of recommendation (at least one from your EM residency Program Director)

Please submit these to the SEM Fellowship Program Director [email protected]

Accepted candidates will have to apply independently to the MPH program (or equivalent Masters degree program) UIC School of Public Health by the April 15th, 2024 deadline, after acceptance into the Fellowship.

Important dates

Application Deadline

September 15, 2023

Interviews by Invitation Date

October 2023

Offer Date

November 1, 2023

Program Directors

Dr. Stacey Chamberlain is a Professor of Emergency Medicine who has been at UIC since 2007. She completed a Global EM Fellowship at UIC and has been the Director of the GEM Fellowship Program since 2015 after serving as Associate Director since 2009. Her passion for health equity bridges her local and global work in Emergency Medicine, with particular interests in education, capacity building, and community engagement. She also serves as the Director of Academic Programs in the UIC Center for Global Health and oversees the Global Medicine (GMED) Program for UIC medical students and the graduate global health certificate programs. Dr. Chamberlain has done clinical, educational, public-health, disaster-response, and emergency medicine development work, including working with several NGOs, and co-founding an NGO, Global Emergency Care, that focuses on training and capacity building in emergency care in Uganda.

Dr. Charlie Inboriboon is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and an Associate Program Director for the UIC Emergency Medicine Residency Program. He completed his residency at UIC and an International Emergency Medicine Fellowship Program at the University of Rochester.  He served as core faculty at the University of Rochester and the University of Missouri of Kansas City prior to returning to UIC in 2020 to a leadership position in education.  His academic interests include social emergency medicine, education, and global medicine, and he is the Director of the Social Emergency Medicine Track for the UIC EM Residency Program.

 

 

 

Faculty

  • Stacey Chamberlain, MD MPH; Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine; Director of Academic Programs, UIC Center for Global Health
  • Pholaphat Inboriboon, MD, MPH; Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine; Associate Program Director, UIC EM Residency Program
  • Terry Vanden Hoek, MD; Professor of Emergency Medicine; Department Chair of Emergency Medicine
  • Samantha Hay, MD, MPH; Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
  • Stephen Brown, MSW LCSW; Director, Preventive Emergency Medicine
  • Janet Lin, MD, MPH, MBA; Professor of Emergency Medicine; Affiliate Professor, Division of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health; Associate Chief Executive Officer, Strategic Integration and Partnerships, UI Health Hospital and Clinics; President, Chicago Board of Health
  • Heather Prendergast, MD, MS, MPH, MHA; Professor of Emergency Medicine; Associate Head Research; Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs, College of Medicine; Executive Director MSP, University of Illinois Physicians Group
  • Adam Rodos, MD; Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine; Director of Quality, Department of Emergency Medicine
  • Pavitra Kotini-Shah, MD; Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine; Illinois Heart Rescue Physician co-lead; NIH Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) Scholar
  • David Chestek, DO; Assistant Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine; Chief Medical Information Officer UI Health

Faculty Spotlights

Dr. Heather Prendergast is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Associate Head Research. She has academic interests in minority health and cardiovascular disease and has an extensive history of funded research in areas of social EM interest including geriatrics, minority elderly health, retention and promotion of under-represented minorities in academic medicine, nutrition and food justice, heart failure, and hypertension.

Dr. Janet Lin is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and the Associate Chief Executive Officer, Strategic Integration and Partnerships, UI Health. She has academic interests in health systems development and transformation, public health, disaster preparedness and response, and global health. Her SEM work is featured as part of the UIC Social Justice Initiative. She is a former President of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians and current President of Chicago Board of Health. Her funded research at UIC includes Project HEAL and Project IDEAL to test and implement HIV, HCV, and diabetes screening in the ED and provide linkages to care.

Director of Preventive Emergency Medicine at UI Health. He joined UI Health in 2011 to build a program to provide care coordination for emergency department frequent utilizers, building upon experience as an ED social worker where he observed that the underlying drivers of healthcare utilization (what we now call the social determinants of health) were being ignored. He has academic interests in the social determinants of health, mental illness, substance use disorders, homelessness, and unmet psycho-social needs. He is the Program Director for Better Health Through Housing, a program to pilot and scale the nationally-validated Housing First model. 

Publications

UIC Social Emergency Medicine Publications:

Dickens C, Weitzel D, Brown S. Mr. G And The Revolving Door: Breaking The Readmission Cycle At A Safety-Net Hospital. Health Affairs. 2016 Mar. 35:3; https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2015.0967

UIC Social Emergency Medicine Journal Publications:

-Prendergast HM, Khosla S. Lessons learned about policymaking: Moving an emergency department-initiated screening protocol to systemwide input in the development and implementation process. Acad Emerg Med. 2023 Jan 27. doi: 10.1111/acem.14672. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36707976.

-Danielson KK, Rydzon B, Nicosia M, Maheswaren A, Eisenberg Y, Lin J, Layden BT. Prevalence of Undiagnosed Diabetes Identified by a Novel Electronic Medical Record Diabetes Screening Program in an Urban Emergency Department in the US. JAMA Netw Open. 2023 Jan 3;6(1):e2253275. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.53275. PMID: 36701158; PMCID: PMC9880794.

-Chan PS, Merritt R, Chang A, Girotra S, Kotini-Shah P, Al-Araji R, McNally B. Race and ethnicity data in the cardiac arrest registry to enhance survival: Insights from medicare self-reported data. Resuscitation. 2022 Sep 22;180:64-67. doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2022.09.011. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36156280; PMCID: PMC10030374.

-Prendergast H, Tyo C, Colbert C, Kelley M, Pobee R. Medical complications of obesity: heightened importance in a COVID era. Int J Emerg Med. 2022 Jun 23;15(1):29. doi: 10.1186/s12245-022-00431-7. PMID: 35739488; PMCID: PMC9219148.

-Lin J, Mauntel-Medici C, Maheswaran AB, Baghikar S, Pugach O, Stein EM, Martin MT, Nguyen H. Factors predicting staging and treatment initiation for patients with chronic hepatitis C infection: insurance a key predictor. J Public Health (Oxf). 2022 Mar 7;44(1):148-157. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdaa276. PMID: 33539524; PMCID: PMC8904194.

-Heinert SW, Riggs R, Prendergast H. Emergency Department Management of Hypertension in the Context of COVID-19. Curr Hypertens Rep. 2022 Feb;24(2):37-43. doi: 10.1007/s11906-022-01169-6. Epub 2022 Jan 25. PMID: 35076879; PMCID: PMC8787746.

-Prendergast H, Del Rios M, Durazo-Arvizu R, Escobar-Schulz S, Heinert S, Jackson M, Gimbar RP, Daviglus M, Lara B, Khosla S. Effect of an emergency department education and empowerment intervention on uncontrolled hypertension in a predominately minority population: The AHEAD2 randomized clinical pilot trial. J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open. 2021 Mar 2;2(2):e12386. doi: 10.1002/emp2.12386. PMID: 33718921; PMCID: PMC7926004.

-Prendergast HM, Petzel-Gimbar R, Kitsiou S, Del Rios M, Lara B, Jackson M, Heinert S, Carter BL, Durazo-Arvizu RA, Daviglus M. Targeting of uncontrolled hypertension in the emergency department (TOUCHED): Design of a randomized controlled trial. Contemp Clin Trials. 2021 Mar;102:106283. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2021.106283. Epub 2021 Jan 20. PMID: 33484897; PMCID: PMC8272286.

-Prendergast HM, Escobar-Schulz S, Del Rios M, Petzel-Gimbar R, McPherson C, Jackson M, Terrell K, Heinert SW. Community Targeting of Uncontrolled Hypertension: Results of a Hypertension Screening and Education Intervention in Community Churches Serving Predominantly Racial/Ethnic Minority Populations. Health Promot Pract. 2021 Sep;22(5):714-723. doi: 10.1177/1524839920933897. Epub 2020 Jun 17. PMID: 32552138.

-Heinert S, Escobar-Schulz S, Jackson M, Del Rios M, Kim S, Kahkejian J, Prendergast H. Barriers and Facilitators to Hypertension Control Following Participation in a Church-Based Hypertension Intervention Study. Am J Health Promot. 2020 Jan;34(1):52-58. doi: 10.1177/0890117119868384. Epub 2019 Aug 13. PMID: 31409096.

-McNulty M, Schmitt J, Friedman E, Hunt B, Tobin A, Maheswaran AB, Lin J, Novak R, Sha B, Rolfsen N, Moswin A, Rose B, Pitrak D, Glick N. Implementing Rapid Initiation of Antiretroviral Therapy for Acute HIV Infection Within a Routine Testing and Linkage to Care Program in Chicago. J Int Assoc Provid AIDS Care. 2020 Jan-Dec;19:2325958220939754. doi: 10.1177/2325958220939754. PMID: 32734805; PMCID: PMC7401059.

-Sawyer KN, Camp-Rogers TR, Kotini-Shah P, Del Rios M, Gossip MR, Moitra VK, Haywood KL, Dougherty CM, Lubitz SA, Rabinstein AA, Rittenberger JC, Callaway CW, Abella BS, Geocadin RG, Kurz MC; American Heart Association Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee; Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; Council on Genomic and Precision Medicine; Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research; and Stroke Council. Sudden Cardiac Arrest Survivorship: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2020 Mar 24;141(12):e654-e685. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000747. Epub 2020 Feb 12. PMID: 32078390.

-Del Rios M, Colla J, Kotini-Shah P, Briller J, Gerber B, Prendergast H. Emergency physician use of tissue Doppler bedside echocardiography in detecting diastolic dysfunction: an exploratory study. Crit Ultrasound J. 2018 Jan 25;10(1):4. doi: 10.1186/s13089-018-0084-5. PMID: 29372430; PMCID: PMC5785451.

-Prendergast HM, Del Rios M, Petzel-Gimbar R, Garside D, Heinert S, Escobar-Schulz S, Kotini-Shah P, Brown M, Chen J, Colla J, Fitzgibbon M, Durazo-Arvizu RA, Daviglus M. A hypertension emergency department intervention aimed at decreasing disparities: Design of a randomized clinical trial. Contemp Clin Trials. 2018 Jan;64:1-7. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2017.11.009. Epub 2017 Nov 8. PMID: 29128648; PMCID: PMC5837806.

-Heinert S, Carter J, Mauntel-Medici C, Lin J. Assessment of Nurse Perspectives on an Emergency Department-Based Routine Opt-Out HIV Screening Program. J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care. 2017 May-Jun;28(3):316-326. doi: 10.1016/j.jana.2016.12.004. Epub 2016 Dec 15. PMID: 28087204.

-Lin J, Mauntel-Medici C, Heinert S, Baghikar S. Harnessing the Power of the Electronic Medical Record to Facilitate an Opt-Out HIV Screening Program in an Urban Academic Emergency Department. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2017 May/Jun;23(3):264-268. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000000448. PMID: 27598705.

-Lin J, Baghikar S, Mauntel-Medici C, Heinert S, Patel D. Patient and System Factors Related to Missed Opportunities for Screening in an Electronic Medical Record-driven, Opt-out HIV Screening Program in the Emergency Department. Acad Emerg Med. 2017 Nov;24(11):1358-1368. doi: 10.1111/acem.13277. Epub 2017 Sep 23. PMID: 28833779.

-Prendergast HM, Colla J, Patel N, Del Rios M, Marcucci J, Scholz R, Ngwang P, Cappitelli K, Daviglus M, Dudley S. Correlation between Subclinical Heart Disease and Cardiovascular Risk Profiles in an Urban Emergency Department Population with Elevated Blood Pressures: A Pilot Study. J Emerg Med. 2015 Jun;48(6):756-61. doi: 10.1016/j.jemermed.2014.12.026. Epub 2015 Mar 20. PMID: 25802165; PMCID: PMC4457673.

-Prendergast HM, Dudley S, Kane J, Daviglus M, Marcucci J, Acosta A, Bunney EB, Richardson D, O’Neal T. Progression of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in ethnic minorities. High Blood Press Cardiovasc Prev. 2014 Sep;21(3):205-11. doi: 10.1007/s40292-013-0031-2. PMID: 24235072; PMCID: PMC4713118.

-Prendergast HM, Dudley S, Brown M, Daviglus M, Kane J, Bradshaw Bunney E, Marcucci J, Sanyaolu R. Antihypertensive medications and diastolic dysfunction progression in an African American population. High Blood Press Cardiovasc Prev. 2014 Dec;21(4):269-74. doi: 10.1007/s40292-014-0064-1. Epub 2014 Jun 28. PMID: 24972662; PMCID: PMC4713010.