Precision Emergency Medicine: Convening the Specialty to Create a New Approach
Precision emergency medicine represents an evolutionary milestone in the delivery of acute care, building upon the foundational principles of emergency medicine while demanding a reevaluation of our engagement with emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and innovative models of acute care delivery.
At the 2023 SAEM National Consensus Conference, led by Stanford University Department of Emergency Medicine, clinicians, researchers, educators, and community partners from across the country explored nine research areas in precision emergency medicine and identified three crosscutting themes that can help to advance this new paradigm:
- The interconnectedness of disciplines
- The role of data in advancing and tailoring care
- Promises and pitfalls in harnessing health technology, data science, and artificial intelligence
The conference also identified educational gaps that must be addressed to ensure that precision emergency medicine advances patient care across diverse populations.
These efforts coalesced in several groundbreaking publications, with more under development:
THE PROCESS
Nine preconference workgroups (biomedical ethics, data science, health professions education, health care delivery and access, informatics, omics, population health, sex and gender, and technology and digital tools) garnered expert opinion, reviewed relevant literature, engaged with patients, and developed key research questions.
During the conference, each workgroup shared how they defined precision EM within their domain, presented relevant conceptual frameworks, and engaged a broad set of stakeholders to refine precision EM research questions using a multistage consensus-building process.
The year-long effort was led by Stanford's Matthew Strehlow, MD, executive vice chair; Michael Gisondi, MD, vice chair of education; Jody Vogel, MD, vice chair for academic affairs; and Holly Caretta-Weyer, MD, clinical associate professor.
ABOUT PRECISION EMERGENCY MEDICINE
At its core, precision emergency medicine is the use of data and technology to deliver acute care to individual patients and their communities. However, the advancement and application of precision emergency medicine necessitate a multidisciplinary approach, weaving together various academic, technological, and social domains to enhance efficacy and ensure equity.
Precision emergency medicine lies at the intersection of multiple domains. For instance, data science discussions also necessitate considerations of technology infrastructure, medical education, gender-specific data variations, privacy, and ethical implications. This interconnectedness reinforces the need for a holistic approach in the field.