Dr. Samuel Keim Named President of the ABEM
Samuel M. Keim, MD, MSc, a professor and head of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson’s Department of Emergency Medicine, was elected president of the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM).
Samuel M. Keim, MD, MSc
“I feel honored and humbled to be elected president of the ABEM,” said Dr. Keim, who also has a faculty appointment in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. “As president, my first priority will be to maintain and improve the performance and credibility of our assessments. I hope to increase the amount of high-impact learning that emergency physicians experience when engaged in their continuing certification modules. Translating new scientific advances to the bedside has the potential to dramatically improve patient care across the country.”
Once an emergency physician becomes board certified, they must take periodic assessment modules through ABEM to ensure they are learning about new advances to help their patients.
Dr. Keim is also the director of the Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center (AEMRC). “Faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the AEMRC are involved in a wide variety of high-impact projects, including statewide public health implementation projects that bring interventions, proven to work inside the hospital, outside the hospital to the field where paramedics can dramatically improve outcomes,” he said. “In both cardiac arrest and severe traumatic brain injury, our statewide implementation of new pre-hospital protocols has saved thousands of lives in Arizona. Inside the hospital, our faculty members are leading exciting research in pediatric emergencies, sepsis resuscitation, COVID-19-related clinical trials, and the use of physician-operated bedside ultrasound to aid resuscitation.
“I was motivated to enter the specialty of emergency medicine because I wanted to help people with real emergencies,” Dr. Keim said. “I continue to be most excited about research that targets exactly those types of clinical problems.”
Dr. Keim said he is grateful for the support he has received from the College of Medicine – Tucson and UArizona Health Sciences throughout his career. “Fantastic mentors helped show me pathways forward when I was completely lost. Eager students and residents helped motivate me to be a better teacher. Patients from the Tucson community, which I love, are really the reason I have done this for so long.”
The ABEM is not a membership association and certification is sought and earned by emergency physicians on a voluntary basis. There are over 40,000 ABEM certified emergency physicians across the country. Their mission is to “ensure the highest standards in the specialty of emergency medicine.”