Where do they need us? Determining the future of emergency medicine

Emergency medicine was born out of necessity in hospital basements to serve the critically sick and injured arriving without warning. By meeting the needs of the desperate and most vulnerable, we grew into departments that cared for patients left out of the disjointed American health system. In the face of terror, we bolstered our capacity for mass casualties and CBRNE events. Policymakers recognized the value of our work, if not the cost, and legislated a universal right to emergency care in the United States [1].