About Us
Mission
Our Program trains emergency medicine diverse physicians who render competent, compassionate patient care and who contribute to the specialty of emergency medicine and the community through leadership in health care, education, and the creation of knowledge.
Aims
- Recruiting dynamic physicians possessing leadership potential and diverse interests, backgrounds, and experiences to enrich the educational milieu.
- Providing a preeminent training process by offering early autonomy across diverse training sites combined with exceptional research and leadership opportunities.
- Producing professional leaders in the spheres of academic and community-based medicine.
History
As testimony to the success of the residency, over 40 percent of the graduates have become directors of emergency departments. In addition to their amazing work in communities all over the country, over 40 percent of our alumni have pursued academic careers in emergency medicine and we are proud that numerous emergency medicine residency programs across the country are currently chaired or directed by a graduate of our program.

Clinical Experience
The major emergency medicine training sites are City of Chicago/regional-designated trauma centers and combined have over 240,000 total patient visits per year. Each institution is located in a distinctly different demographic part of the metropolitan Chicago area. This provides the resident with a broad mix of clinical experiences with patients from a variety of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.
The patients who come for care are unselected, from the newborn to the aged, and present with a high acuity of illness. This diverse experience will prepare the resident to work in any emergency medicine setting. All training sites have 24-hour bedside supervision provided by residency-trained, board certified faculty.
Curriculum
PGY1 – PGY3 Training

First Year

Second Year

3rd Year
Year 1
Half of the first year is spent in the emergency departments at the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCM Adult and Pediatric) and NorthShore University HealthSystems/Evanston (NUH) seeing patients under the direct guidance of a more senior emergency medicine resident and the attending physician. Particular attention is given to understanding the emergent nature of disease processes and how to prioritize care.
The remainder of the first year emphasizes critical care rotations vital to the development of an emergency medicine specialist. This includes clinical experiences in the intensive care units of the cardiology, critical care (medical), pediatric and neonatal care services, the labor and delivery obstetrical unit, the anesthesia service, and two distinctive trauma units. We are proud to emphasize our unique clinical curriculum which precludes general floor rotations in favor of exclusive exposure to the high intensity critical care settings that our three hospitals offer.
Rotation | Time (2 week blocks) |
EM at UChicago | 3.5 months |
EM at Northshore | 1 month |
Peds EM at Comer | 1.5 months |
Trauma Intern | 2 months (1 mo blocks) |
MICU | 1 month |
CCU | 1 month |
PICU at Comer | 2 weeks |
OB at Northshore | 1 week |
Anesthesia | 3 weeks |
ENT | 1 week |
EMS | 1 week |
Ultrasound | 8 sessions |
Vacation | 1 month |
Year 2
Just over half of the year is spent in the emergency departments at the UCM (Adult and Pediatric) and NUH. This is a transitional year in which progressive development of teaching and managerial skills occurs in the emergency department. This includes supervision of more junior emergency medicine residents under the direct guidance of attending faculty. Other experiences include management of trauma patients in the emergency department within the University of Chicago Medicine, a large, inner city, level I trauma center, a month in the Comer Pediatric Emergency Department, and a month of critical care in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) at UCM.
Rotation | Time (2 week blocks) |
EM at UChicago | 5.5 months |
EM at Northshore | 2 months |
Peds EM at Comer | 1 month |
EM Trauma | 1.5 months |
SICU | 1 month |
Elective | 2 weeks |
Tox/International Flight Program Selective | 1 month |
Vacation | 1 month |
Year 3
Rotation | Time (2 week blocks) |
EM at UChicago | 4.5 months |
EM at Northshore | 2 months |
Peds EM at Comer | 1 month |
EM Trauma | 1.5 months |
MICU Dayfloat | 1 month |
Admin/Teaching/US Selective | 1 month |
Elective | 1 month |
Vacation | 1 month |
Residency Review
Examples of recent changes instituted through this process include:
- Division of MICU 1-month blocks into two 2-week blocks to match with Medicine co-intern schedules
- Changes to the EM Trauma resident schedule and staffing model
- Creation of a pre- and post- Trauma rotation formal debrief for interns
- Opening of new moonlighting opportunities for senior residents