The Department of Emergency Medicine houses a robust and rapidly growing section of Social Emergency Medicine (SEM) within its Division of Population Health and Health Services.  Social Emergency Medicine is a key intersection between population health priorities and the individuals comprising the population. A patient’s need for a given health service as well as their desire, access to, and ability to benefit from that health service all depend greatly on factors beyond genetically determined physiology and the structure of the health service.  These factors, i.e., social determinants of health, include a complex interplay of social and environmental influences acting long before and long after the moment at which the health condition is addressed.  Health promotion interventions that do not at least consider, if not addressed, social determinants of health will have reduced acceptance and efficacy.  

In 2020, the University of Cincinnati began a two year practice fellowship in PHHS, of which the inaugural fellows have chosen to pursue Social Emergency Medicine as their content area of focus. For more information about opportunities for fellows, residents, and students, see Career Development and Education