Expanding the scope of emergency care: The clinical forensic medicine fellowship at Kings County Hospital

Most victims of trauma and abuse will seek care in an emergency department (ED) within hours of their violence-related injuries. Medical training has produced well-trained physicians to evaluate, stabilize, and treat these patients in the acute setting. Unfortunately, in an ED without forensic staff, lack of timely forensic care can result in delays in treatment, loss of evidence, and hope of any justice being achieved. Emergency physicians are in a unique position to provide critical medical and forensic care to these patients, especially in health care facilities without 24-h coverage of forensic staff and social workers.

In 2022, Kings County Hospital developed a clinical forensics medicine fellowship to provide specialized care to victims of trauma and provide additional training to emergency medicine (EM) residents. A clinical forensic medicine (CFM) curriculum was created to introduce trauma-informed care in adult and pediatric EM training programs. It demonstrated how forensic medicine can play an integral role in the road to recovery for victims, without interfering with the delivery of critical medical care.

This article describes the development of a clinical forensics medicine fellowship at Kings County Hospital using Kern's six-step approach to curriculum design. It includes the problem identification, targeted needs assessment, goals and objectives, educational strategies, implementation, and evaluation.

This article elaborates on the importance of CFM in EM residency training and provides the framework to replicate the fellowship at any institution.