Ten-year experience with an emergency medicine resident research project requirement

Controversy exists regarding the value and quality of required emergency medicine (EM) resident scholarly projects.

To describe the research designs and presentation rate at national scientific meetings and the publication rate of EM resident scholarly projects at a university-based residency program.

The authors reviewed the initial ten years (1993-2002) of resident scholarly projects from an EM residency program. Since the inception of the program, a formal research study has been required of all residents for residency graduation. Scholarly projects were reviewed and categorized by study design. Abstracts from the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM), American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) annual meetings were searched to identify projects presented at any of these national meetings. A PubMed search for resident and faculty investigators was performed, and faculty and graduated residents were queried to identify all resident scholarly projects published in peer-reviewed journals.

Eighty-seven residents produced 90 scholarly projects. Study designs were prospective data collection, 42 (47%); retrospective chart review, 38 (42%); survey, 5 (6%); animal, 4 (4%); and computer program development, 1 (1%). Of the 80 projects collecting patient data, 72 were conducted at a single center; 6, at two centers; and 2, at five centers each. Of the 42 prospective clinical studies, 27 (64%) were observational and 15 (36%) were interventional. Forty-six (51%) abstracts were presented at national meetings (SAEM, 20; ACEP, 19; AAEM, 3; and other, 4). Thirty-six (40%) of the projects have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Abstract presentation at national meetings (range, 13%-64% of projects per yr) and manuscript publication rates (range, 0-67% of projects per yr) were variable from year to year.

Resident scholarly projects at one institution were equally likely to use a prospective or retrospective design, and most were conducted at a single center. More than half of the projects were presented at national research meetings, and more than a third were subsequently developed into manuscripts and published in peer-reviewed journals. When an original research study is required for satisfying the scholarly requirement for EM residency graduation, resident projects can contribute to the EM literature.