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ABOUT OUR RESIDENCY PROGRAM

The Department of Emergency Medicine is an autonomous unit within the UC Irvine School of Medicine.

Our faculty members are actively involved with the hospital medical staff and in medical school affairs, as well as in professional associations, such as the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM).

leadership

(left to right) Dr. Jonathan Smart, Assistant Program Director; Dr. Alisa Wray, MD, MAEd, Associate Program Director; and Dr. Shannon Toohey, MD, MAEd, Program Director

Residency Leadership

Program Director
Shannon Toohey, MD, MAEd

Assistant Program Director
Jonathan Smart, MD

Associate Program Director
Alisa Wray, MD, MAEd

Quick Facts

Residency Program Length: 3 years
Resident Program Inception Year: 1989
First-Time ABEM Board Pass Rate for past 5 years:                   95%

UCI Medical Center Virtual Tours (Traditional & 360-Degree)

Overview of UCI Medical Center & GME

DIO - Overview of GME & Cafeteria

Overview of UCI Medical Center

Chair of Emergency Medicine Dept. - ED

Sites

Training Site Approximate ED Volumes
UC Irvine Medical Center (UCIMC)

62,516 (2,315 patients/resident)

Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) 119,189
Long Beach Memorial Medical Center (LBMMC) &
Miller Children’s Hospital (MCH)
85,200
VA Long Beach Healthcare System (LBVA) 29,196

Residency Perks Snapshot

CIR/SEIU Snapshot

Research

Clinical research is strongly emphasized, and each resident is required to undertake and complete a scholarly project while in training. Particular areas of emphasis and expertise within the department include:

  • Clinical Pharmacology
  • Clinical Informatics
  • Difficult Airway Management
  • Disaster and Event Medicine
  • Emergency Airway Management
  • Emergency Medical Services
  • Emergency Medicine Research
  • Evidence-Based Medicine
  • Infectious Disease
  • International Emergency Medicine
  • Medical Education
  • Pediatric Emergency Medicine
  • Quality Assurance
  • Simulation
  • Substance Abuse
  • Toxicology
  • Trauma
  • Ultrasound
  • Wilderness Medicine

Program Curriculum Sample Modular & Ultrasound Curriculum

2023-2024 Sample Modular & Ultrasound Curriculum PDF

University of California, Irvine Emergency Medicine Residents receive excellent training — both at the bedside and in formal conferences. Department faculty members are available at all times; cases are staffed with junior and senior residents. Residents assume added responsibility and autonomy as their training progresses, but faculty backup is universal.

The didactic curriculum includes a 4.5-hour resident conference each Wednesday morning. Residents are expected to come to conference each week and are relieved from clinical duties on most outside rotations so that they can attend. Breakfast is provided at scheduled resident conferences.

The curriculum covers wellness, core diagnosis and management topics, critical case conference, weekly reading assignments, radiology round, ECG conferences, and morbidity and mortality conferences. Our monthly Journal Club is held at our academic offices for resident convenience or at faculty/resident homes, lending a family feeling to the residency.

The curriculum covers wellness, core diagnosis and management topics, critical case conference, weekly reading assignments, radiology round, ECG conferences, and morbidity and mortality conferences. Our monthly Journal Club is held at our academic offices for resident convenience or at faculty/resident homes, lending a family feeling to the residency.

Each resident's critical case, procedure and resuscitation experiences are closely monitored to ensure proper breadth and depth of training. EMS education includes ground ambulance ride-alongs with the busiest paramedic units in the county and the opportunity to gain experience in transporting critically ill patients by Mercy Air helicopter. Combined monthly simulation/ultrasound conferences include hands-on training in various emergency medicine procedures as well as high-fidelity simulation of real patient cases that are tailored in complexity to the corresponding year of resident training.

By the end of the program, our residents have earned the following certifications: ACLS, PALS and ATLS. Many residents also gain instructor status for these courses, although this is not a requirement.

Block Rotations

Sample Block Diagram

Innovative Teaching Modalities

Over the last five years, the faculty members of UC Irvine Emergency Medicine Residency Program have incorporated a variety of innovative teaching modalities to engage and educate their residents and medical students. Ten percent of the curriculum is asynchronous; residents watch online lectures, take quizzes, and read important articles at their own pace. During in-person didactics, the curriculum incorporates both medical knowledge and teamwork.

A consistent theme in many of these modalities is a friendly sense of educational competition. Residents can earn badges for winning competitions or for other accomplishments, such as publishing an article or taking on a leadership position. Badges are displayed prominently on a leaderboard. Badges can be earned in many ways. Winners of the trivia style weekly reading Kahoot! quizzes earn badges on the leaderboard. In a more hands-on approach, residents can also earn a badge by doing well in a simulation competition (akin to Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s (SAEM) SimWars), where they run through clinical cases or participate in splinting, CPR, and intubating competitions. During scavenger hunts and escape rooms, residents answer emergency medicine related questions in order to solve puzzles or obtain the next clue. Other fun learning modalities include Sonolympics, which is a combination of point of care ultrasound contests and trivia; the Wilderness Games with Dr. Katzer is held annually at San Onofre and challenges residents on a series of wilderness-based EM cases. In the Clinical Pathologic Case (CPC) competition (akin to Council for Residency Director’s CPC competition), junior residents challenge the senior residents to “solve” difficult cases. The residents are scored on their clinical reasoning and presentation style.

Case based and team-based learning is also utilized in place of standard lectures. When a traditional lecture is given, a concerted effort is made to create a shorter, higher impact, and more hands-on lecture format for the residents. It is also a priority to expose residents to the clinical experience and opinions of physicians from other specialties and emergency medicine physicians outside of UC Irvine. Multi-specialty panels and panels made up of EM physicians from various private hospitals help residents to learn how cases are managed by different specialists, in different hospital systems.