Emergency Medicine

Annual E-Letter

2025

Message from the Chair

Dear UCSD DEM Family, Friends and Colleagues:

It is hard to believe how quickly 2025 has passed. Another year of tremendous growth and accomplishment for our Department and faculty. We now oversee 4 EDs in San Diego and Imperial Counties, as well as an Urgent Care in La Jolla and a virtual telemedicine post-acute care program, providing care to over 200,000 patients annually. Our Education programs remain highly sought after with over 60 trainees (residents and fellows); and our Research programs are in the top 25 nationwide on the prestigious Blue Ridge rankings.

With our growth, the Department established new Divisions in Global and Wilderness Medicine, as well as Emergency Critical Care. In addition, we’ve added a new Vice Chair of Faculty Affairs (inaugural appointment of Dr. Alicia Minns) joining our other VCs in Clinical Operations, Education, Research, and Academic Affairs.

Please read below for more highlights from this past year (or visit our website at EMERGENCY MEDICINE), and as always thank you for your support and interest in our Department.

Happy Holidays and Joyous New Year to all,

Ted

Ted Chan, MD

Professor & Chair

Department of Emergency Medicine

University of California, San Diego

Department News

Faculty

Gerald Tolbert

DEM faculty Gerald Tolbert, MD, appointed by California Governor Gavin Newsom to the California Medical Board. See full announcement from Governor Newsom here.

Christian Dameff

DEM faculty Christian Dameff, MD, selected as National Academy of Medicine ABEM fellow for 2025-27. To read article, visit article here.

Alicia Minns

Dr. Alicia Minns has been appointed the inaugural Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs and Dr. Chris Coyne has been appointed Vice Chair for Academic Affairs as Dr. Rick Clark steps down from this position. We thank Dr. Clark for all his service as VC over the past decade and look forward to our new VCs!

Research

UCSD DEM ranked #22 in nation for NIH funding on Blue Ridge rankings for 2024. DEM faculty Professor Bingren Hu, MD/PhD ranked #21 in nation as EM research faculty.

UCSD DEM ranked #22 Nationally for NIH Funding

Blue Ridge Site

DEM Faculty Awarded 2-year Multi-campus Research Program Grant To Study AI

DEM faculty James Ford and Gabe Wardi awarded 2-year $720,000 multi-campus Research Program grant across all 10 UC campuses to study AI tools to improve sepsis detection and management.

Read Article

Prebys Foundation Pivot Grant

James Ford MD awarded Prebys Foundation pivot grant for study on sepsis phenotyping in the ED and he also received research grant from the National Foundation of Emergency Medicine.

Prebys Foundation

DEM Faculty Member Alice Chen Awarded Multiple Grants

Alice Chen, MD (adjunct asst prof) awarded research grant from Stein Institute for Research on Aging and Center for Healthy Aging titled: Pilot study on Sleep Quality, Endothelial Senescence, and Autophagy.

She was also selected as SIREN Network Emergency Care Trialist Scholar for 2025.

Clinical

UCSD Hillcrest ED Approved as ECPR Receiving Center

Dr. Chris Coyne new Oncology Acute Care Medical Director at Moores Cancer Center

UCSD Health again ranked #1 for the San Diego region by U.S. News & World Report

UCSD Health establishes partnership with new Imperial Valley Healthcare District that includes ECRMC & Pioneers hospitals

Education

Meet our new Residency

Class of 2029

Meet Our Residents

Congratulations to our Graduating Residents of 2025!

Alumni

UCSD EM Residency Program (under PD Dr. Leslie Oyama) awarded continuing CalMedForce grant for workforce support in the Imperial County

Alumni Updates

Bing Pao, MD (Class of 1996)

Bing Pao, MD, UCSD DEM Volunteer Clinical Faculty and Resident Alumnus (Res ’96) awarded ACEP Colin C. Rorrie, Jr. PhD Award for Excellence in Health Policy and also elected to the ACEP Board of Directors

Ashely Alker, MD (Class of 2019)

Dr. Ashely Alker (Res ‘19) authors new book: “99 Ways to Die: And How to Avoid Them"

Craig Kutz, MD (Residency Class of 2021, Fellow Class of 2022)

UCSD Alumnus Craig Kutz (Res ‘21/Fellow ‘22) receives NASA flight wings in underwater ceremony.

Department News & Accolades

DEM faculty Asst Professor Rahul Nene awarded Best Early Career research abstract presentation at national ACEP Research Forum in Salt Lake City, Sept 2025

DEM faculty Gabe Wardi’s work on AI in Sepsis Mortality Reduction featured in Bipartisan US Congressional Task Force on Artificial Intelligence

Assistant Professor Alan You elected to the national EPIC Emergency Department ASAP Steering Board

DEM faculty member Mike Self MD awarded Whitehill Prize for Clinical Excellence by the Academy of Clinician Scholars at UCSD Health

DEM faculty Vaishal Tolia featured in local media on new UCSD Health ED program expanding opioid treatment in San Diego

DEM Faculty member Elaine Yu receives award at 2025 WMS Research Forum for Outstanding Oral Research Presentation Award titled the Validation of the Freediving Induced Pulmonary Syndrome (FIPS) Classification System

DEM faculty Allyson Kreshak receives California Association of Public Hospitals & Health Systems award for her post-ED visit telemedicine program

DEM Faculty Rachna Subramony featured in UC San Diego Today article titled: "Compassionate Communication Training Rebuilds Connection in a High-Stress Health Care Culture"

DEM faculty Dr. Christian Bannerman featured on KUSI News discussing the MLK Jr. Day Celebration Harmony and Health Festival 2025

Additional News

DEM Scholarly Works

Highlighted Publications

James Ford, DEM faculty presented late-breaking abstract at the 2025 Society for Critical Care Medicine on Sepsis Management (SEP-1), published in the Annals of Internal Medicine along with co-authors DEM faculty Gabe Wardi and Shamim Nemati | The Effect of Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock Management Bundle (SEP-1) Compliance and Implementation on Mortality Among Patients With Sepsis: A Systematic Review

Full List of Publications →

National Research Presentations

Department Abstracts

Donate Now

Thank you to all who have generously supported the Department of Emergency Medicine. Remarkable change has happened because of the generosity of so many. 100% of your tax deductible donation goes directly to support the incredible work in Emergency Medicine.

For more information and updates on the UCSD Department of Emergency Medicine,

please visit our website at emergencymed.ucsd.edu

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