The BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine is home to one of the nation’s most highly funded emergency medicine research programs, advancing discoveries that improve patient care. Our faculty and trainees lead high-impact clinical and translational studies, turning new knowledge into practice and policy that benefits people in Wisconsin and beyond.
We foster a culture where all faculty, fellows, and residents are encouraged to pursue their ideas, supported by a flexible infrastructure that accelerates progress from concept to implementation. This has led to strong funding, influential publications, and real-world improvements in emergency care.
Our investigators are advancing work in dementia and care for older adults, antimicrobial stewardship, and improving health for rural communities — supported by growing expertise in health informatics and clinical artificial intelligence. Through leadership in AI and innovation, we collaborate across UW–Madison, especially with the College of Engineering and other health sciences, to shape how new technologies are responsibly developed and applied in patient care.
These efforts make our research enterprise one of the fastest-growing areas of the department and a leader in defining the future of emergency medicine.
Learn more about our commitment to rigorous discovery and collaboration at emed.wisc.edu/research.
Conference Research Curriculum
Our didactic research curriculum covers high-yield, practical topics that help residents develop the necessary skills to critically appraise research literature and complete a scholarly project prior to graduation.
We have designed our curriculum so that it is accessible and engaging for individuals with all ranges of research experience, providing them with tools that will aid residents in completing their required scholarly project. This curriculum is augmented by several lectures throughout the year by emergency medicine faculty investigators, as well as by visiting experts.
These skills are put into practice during Journal Clubs throughout the year that serve to develop residents’ abilities to evaluate and assess research for its quality and validity, which is essential to evidence-based practice.
Year 1: Introduction to scholarship, study design, and appraising tscholarly literature
Year 2: Basic statistical testing, qualitative and survey research methods
Year 3: Publishing your work, statistical software, and obtaining funding
Scholarly and Quality Improvement Projects
Residents are matched with a faculty mentor shortly after arriving at UW as an intern. In the fall of their PGY 1 year, residents meet with both the Resident Quality Lead and their faculty mentor to discuss expectations for both quality improvement and scholarly projects. Based on their individual interests, residents may also be matched with members of the Research Executive Committee who will offer residents guidance in exploring their scholarly goals.
Residents are supported by faculty mentorship and the support of our extensive research infrastructure through the process of taking an idea for scholarly work from concept to tangible product. For many residents, this often results in presenting at national conferences or submitting manuscripts.
Recent Publications
Our residents contribute to research on a range of topics
Constantakis J, Steiner Q, Reher T, Choi T, Hollnagel F, Zhao Q, Bennett N, Nair VA, Adelman E, Prabhakaran V, Aagard-Kienitz B, Famakin B. Factors Associated with Functional Outcome Following Acute Ischemic Stroke Due to M1 MCA/ICA Occlusion in the Extended Time Window. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2025; 14(15):5556. doi: 10.3390/jcm14155556
Wing S, Barclay-Buchanan C, Arneson S, Buckley D, Hekman D, Gauger J, Michels C, Brink J, Hurst I, Rutz D, Tsuchida R. Reduced left-without-being-seen rates and impact on disparities after guest services ambassadors implementation. Acad Emerg Med. 2025. Online ahead of print. doi: 10.1111/acem.15100
Hekman DJ, Maru AP, Barton HJ, Wiegmann D, Shah MN, Cochran AL, Ötleş E, Patterson BW. Evaluation of falls detected by natural language processing algorithm and not coded external cause of morbidity. JAMIA Open. 2025 Jun 20;8(3):ooaf047. doi: 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooaf047
Gifford A, McClellan C, Daven M, Ellenbogen M, Foster B, Gil H, Johnson J, Jobe D, Carpenter CR, Dresden SM, Gilmore-Bykovskyi A, Hwang U, Shah MN. Engaging Community Reviewers: The Geriatric Emergency Care Applied Research (2.0)-Advancing Dementia Care Network Approach. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2025 May 16. Epub ahead of print. doi: 10.1111/jgs.19515