We cannot imagine a better place to celebrate ACEP18 and the 50th year of ACEP. We couldn’t ask for a better crowd either—thousands of the world’s finest emergency physicians.

ACEP18 is your opportunity to spend time networking with colleagues from all over the United States and around the world. This is the place to be for outstanding education, research, discussion, and most importantly, looking forward to emergency medicine’s future.

This is your revitalization—recharge your practice batteries and remember why you chose this specialty to begin with. Here at ACEP18, you’ll discover just how large the emergency medicine community is and how many different areas of focus and interest the specialty contains. Part of wellness is enjoying what you do. If you’re looking to shake things up and spark your passion, attend section meetings, committee meetings, and networking events and learn from as many courses and events as possible at ACEP18. Try things, learn things, do things—take the time to explore.

The future of emergency medicine rests in our multitude of voices and interests coming together to serve one purpose.

Each year, ACEP recommits to our mission of promoting the highest quality of emergency care and being the leading advocate for emergency physicians, their patients, and the public.

The spirit of this mission has been with ACEP since day one, 50 years ago.

Everything we do is in service of this vision…and you. We are dedicated to making your life easier, your practice better, your clinical care excellent, and your patients healthier.

Here are a few of the projects and initiatives ACEP’s Board of Directors, senior management team, and staff are working on for 2018–2019.

Pursuing change in legislation, regulation, and policy: Our advocacy office in Washington, D.C., works tirelessly to make change for emergency medicine in the government. Already this year we have successfully urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin the Drug Shortage Task Force that you advocated for at the 2018 Leadership & Advocacy Conference. Our members spoke in front of congress for the Alternatives to Opioids (ALTO) in the Emergency Department Act and Preventing Overdoses While in Emergency Rooms (POWER) Act, two bills that empower emergency physicians to successfully treat opioid use disorder and overdose. Our leaders meet regularly with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), members of congress, and other medical specialty societies to create change for you. In May, the Surgeon General, Vice Admiral Jerome M. Adams, MD, MPH, held a Q&A session with ACEP members about opioids and governmental regulation, and how your passion for advocacy is making real change happen for you and your patients.

• Promoting quality and patient safety: Our quality initiatives, the Clinical Emergency Data Registry (CEDR) and the Emergency Quality Network (E-QUAL), are boosting patient quality of care through CMS data and ED-led programs that reduce avoidable imaging, improve sepsis outcomes, and provide best practices for opioid prescribing. Our Clinical Ultrasound Accreditation Program (CUAP) is now joined by the Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA) in helping emergency departments nationwide provide top-quality ultrasound and geriatric care. ACEP held the first-ever Solutions Forum, which highlighted successful ED programs for opioid use disorder and end-of-life care, demonstrating already-successful programs in order to bolster your own (see videos from the Forum at ACEP.org).
• Establishing the value of emergency medicine: ACEP has led the charge against Anthem BlueCross BlueShield’s dangerous retroactive emergency medicine care denials. We collected patient stories and worked with reporters to disseminate the information correctly. Many of you attended an open forum, panel-style discussion with several top health policy journalists: Sarah Kliff of Vox, Dan Diamond of Politico, and Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News. We established grassroots advocacy projects to spotlilght Anthem BlueCross BlueShield’s policies. Now, with the partnership of the Medical Association of Georgia, ACEP is suing Anthem BlueCross BlueShield of Georgia.
• Providing robust communication and educational offerings: You probably noticed our website looks a little bit different now. The brand-new ACEP.org is now live. After getting feedback from members, the Website Task Force, and ongoing input from users, a new, improved ACEP.org is now available. Key features include content organized by topic, a more personalized experience over time, and a streamlined, clean design. ACEP.org is an evolving, dynamic resource that will be continually improved and updated. We also launched ACEP engagED, an online community platform that makes member-to-member communication seamless and engaging. We have also launched the Capital Minute and Leadership Report, both speedy rundowns of the efforts of the College in promoting emergency medicine, improving patient care, and advocating for you.
• Develop delivery models that promote emergency medical care across the acute care continuum: Just this year, ACEP leaders have met with the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, the Sickle Cell Care Coalition, Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, American Academy of Emergency Medicine, Council of Emergency Residency Directors (CORD), Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA), American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, CMS, HHS, FDA, National Disaster Life Support Foundation, Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force (and many more) in innumerable efforts to improve your practice and provide the highest quality patient care. Our goal is you, your goal is your patients, so we do all we can to remove any roadblocks.
• Promote member well-being and improve resiliency: In addition to our Wellness Week initiative (#iEMwell18), ACEP, CORD, EMRA and many other medical specialty societies have teamed up for suicide prevention awareness and training. The week focused not only on patient awareness and treatment, but on VA suicide statistics and assistance, physician barriers to seeking their own mental health care, and the shocking prevalence of physician suicide. We continue this mission year-round.

We sincerely hope that you enjoy your time at ACEP18, and look forward advancing emergency care together in the coming year…and the next 50!