Conducting Research in the Emergency Department

Overview and Patient Populations

The Emergency Department (ED) at URMC / Strong Memorial Hospital is a 140-bed facility that is the Regional Trauma and Burn Care Center and includes a Pediatric ED. The Department, with approximately 50 faculty members, cares for more than 100,000 patients per year. The Highland Hospital Emergency Department recently underwent a $9 million renovation and expansion from 7,000 to over 17,000 square feet and from 18 to 25 acute care beds for approximately 32,000 annual visits. Both hospitals serve as Medical Control access points for EMS providers and combined receive nearly half of the daily regional EMS volume.

Research is conducted in the two emergency departments by faculty and staff from emergency medicine, other clinical departments as well as outside organizations.

Emergency Medicine Research Committee

As part of a UR requirement that the scientific value of a study be evaluated by each department prior to submission to the RSRB, all EM-related projects must be approved by the Emergency Medicine Research Committee (EMRC). This includes projects that involve EM faculty, residents, fellows, or staff, as well as those that are planning to enroll ED patients. The mission of this committee is to assess the scientific merit of research projects and their feasibility in the SMH ED. This committee also ensures that studies done in the ED do not interfere with patient care responsibilities, impede patient flow, or overburden ED patients with multiple research requests in a single visit. This committee meets weekly and is composed of many of the Department’s research-oriented faculty, staff and trainees. The appropriate forms and guidelines for submission can be found in the EM Research documents section on the right side of this page.

Emergency Department Research Associate Program

The Emergency Department Research Associate (EDRA) Program is a resource available to investigators who wish to harness the more than 100,000 patients seen in the Strong Memorial Hospital Emergency Department each year. The program, begun in 1996, has successfully screened, consented and enrolled thousands of patients into dozens of studies of varying complexity. The EDRA program has a robust quality improvement process that ensures research protocols are followed and to provide regular feedback on study enrollment, successes and challenges to investigators. Research Associates are initially trained in fundamental concepts of clinical research, confidentiality, consent and procedural skills followed by a continuous learning model that provides them with ongoing research education, study specific training and quality improvement driven learning. Investigators are expected to provide information and protocol testing materials for the EDRA program to utilize in training, and are also welcome to present their research design and expectations at one of the regularly scheduled EDRA staff meetings.

The Research Director and EDRA Supervisor are available to assist in utilizing this resource. There is a fee for using the EDRA program that is based on the expected utilization of the associates. Under certain circumstances this fee may be reduced or waved. For more information, or to discuss using the EDRA program to assist in your study enrollment, contact the ED Research Director.