Emergency Medicine Residency

Curriculum & Didactics

Resident Didactics

At New York-Presbyterian, our weekly academic conference is dynamic and engaging, and powered by attending lecturers, distinguished visiting speakers, and resident led "core" and "theme" days (see below). In addition, we are leaders in developing lifelong learning strategies in our residents.

Theme Days: Six times during the academic year, Wednesday conference days are designated a "Theme Day". Two PGY-3 EM residents, in collaboration with faculty mentors, choose a topic based on their mutual areas of interest and design the educational experience using variety of teaching modalities such as interactive small group sessions, simulation cases, procedure skill sessions, and lectures, etc. Theme days afford residents to explore specific niches within emergency medicine that might not otherwise be covered in the curriculum. Prior topics include business in medicine, critical care, sports medicine, hyperbaric medicine, social EM and community EM.

Morning report (weekdays except Wednesdays), journal clubs (both during conference and off-campus and with food and drink), and SIM lab experiences are also critical components of the didactic experience.

Academic Practice Tracks

Academic practice tracks (APTs) represent various areas of sub-specialization under the umbrella of Emergency Medicine. Often implemented by EM residencies as a tool for residents to explore different niches in EM (a version of a mini-fellowship), OUR VISION is that the APT exists to support faculty and residents to mutually benefit one another as they pursue work in specific niches of EM. The faculty at both Columbia and Weill Cornell are talented leaders in the various subspecialties and niches of emergency medicine, and resident engagement in the APTs serves to foster interest, accomplishment, and career advancement in the various areas.

Each resident is expected to join one (maximum 2) APT during the intern year, and their choice(s) can be reconsidered within the first two years. Each APT is rigorously designed and administered, and activities within the track are assigned point values. Residents must complete 100 points in order to qualify for official APT certification (which is noted in their Graduation Letter). By the end of PG2 year, residents are expected design and present (with their mentors) a plan for their track-based Scholarly Project.

There are 17 APTs from which residents may choose:

• Academic International Medicine/Global Health
• Critical Care
• Disaster/Wilderness/Space/Austere Medicine
• Geriatrics
• Innovation/Telemedicine
• Medical Education
• Medical Humanities
• Operations
• Pediatrics
• Point of Care Ultrasound
• Prehospital/EMS/Tactical
• Quality & Patient Safety
• Research
• Simulation
• Social Medicine
• Sports Medicine
• Medical Toxicology

Curriculum Schedule