The overall goal of the project is to write a history of the development of the specialty of emergency medicine. The specific objectives of the proposed book are: 1. To provide the first comprehensive description of the medical specialty of emergency medicine in the United States. 2. To use oral histories to chronicle the stories of the physicians and other key individuals who founded emergency medicine, and to explore and explain the positions of those who opposed its development. 3. To examine how the U.S. social, political, and health care climate in the 1960's and 1970's influenced the development of emergency medicine and explain why the specialty emerged when it did, what were the driving factors, and which elements of the development of emergency medicine are similar to and which are different from other medical fields. The research and formulation of the book will be based on review of historical literature in emergency medicine, review of historical archives from emergency medicine organizations and societies, other historical documents and materials from the 1960's and 1970's, and oral histories that will be obtained from approximately 60 key individuals who had important roles in the development of emergency medicine. The format for the book will be a roughly chronological accounting of the development of the specialty, covering the first emergency medicine practioners, early efforts at specialty organization, the formation of residency training programs and an academic base, the creation of the emergency medicine specialty board, the rapid growth of community practice, research, and educational programs, and the maturation of the field. The histories of individuals who played a significant role in this process will be interwoven with the story of the development of the specialty. The book will include photographs and figures that will visually chronicle the growth of emergency medicine in the United States.
