Program Director

Welcome to the Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia Department of Emergency Medicine website. We hope you find your visit here informative and enjoyable.

What is your definition of a superior emergency medicine residency program? My definition goes something like this. A superior emergency medicine residency prepares its graduates to practice the highest quality emergency medicine in any environment—from the rural or community hospital where there may not be a lot of back up (perhaps the toughest job in all of medicine) to the inner city, academic setting. The superior residency program excels in all the subspecialties of emergency medicine and provides its residents with a well-rounded exposure to each of those areas and is taught by experts in those fields. And superior emergency medicine programs allow their residents to participate in advancing the science of medicine through their research endeavors. Please allow me to tell you why I think our residency deserves to be placed in this superior category.

Medical education begins with the patients we see. Our emergency department provides care to approximately 85,000 patients spanning all ages and socioeconomic groups and presenting with every conceivable complaint. We are the only Level 1 trauma center in central Virginia and admit 3,000 trauma victims each year. The most critically ill and injured children in the Richmond area are seen in our Pediatric Emergency Department. Many of these patients are brought to us via the Richmond Ambulance Authority (a nationally recognized all–ALS EMS system) or via LifeEvac (the hospital’s air transport service)—both under the medical direction of members of our faculty.
Because of the acuity of the patients we see (admitting 23% of our patients to the hospital), you will see and do it all in our ED—and be prepared to take care of any complaint presenting to any emergency department anywhere.

And you will do so under the supervision of a faculty committed to your education. The credentials of this faculty are remarkable. They are graduates of fifteen emergency medicine residency programs. Three of the faculty completed 5 year combined programs in emergency medicine and internal medicine. Two others completed residency training in another specialty first before seeing the light and completing EM residency programs. Our chair is triple boarded in internal medicine, cardiology and emergency medicine. Members of our faculty have completed fellowship training in pediatric emergency medicine, medical toxicology, critical care, emergency medical services, and research. Every day you will be able to take the best ideas about any aspect of emergency medicine from this diverse faculty with recognized expertise and incorporate these best practices into the way you practice emergency medicine.

Every day you will also be able to participate in research that is changing the practice of medicine. Our department’s research efforts focus on the identification and resuscitation of shock of all kinds and in all settings ranging from the pre-hospital environment through the emergency department and into the intensive care unit. Examples include the utility of defibrillators in public places, the use of a band chest compression device in victims of cardiac arrest, the development of non-invasive CVP monitors and hemostatic agents, and cerebral hypothermia in neurologically impaired cardiac arrest survivors. The results of these research efforts have been recently published in prestigious journals such as the New England Journal, JAMA, Resuscitation and Critical Care Medicine. Our residents’ names appear on these papers because they participated in the research that has changed the way medicine is practiced. And so can you.

Superior programs aid you in defining your career goals, prepare you to achieve those goals and allow you to adapt to the ever-changing face of medicine. As a result of an unsurpassed clinical experience, a devoted, enthusiastic and diverse faculty, and ongoing research that is advancing the practice of medicine, our graduates are well prepared to pursue and excel in any opportunity and to become life long students of medicine.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to learn more about the VCU Emergency Medicine Residency Program.

Tim Evans, M.D.
Residency Director
Department of Emergency Medicine