Under the leadership of Henry E. Wang, M.D., M.S., associate professor and vice chair for research, the UAB Department of Emergency Medicine maintains an active NIH-funded clinical research program focused on acute resuscitation and systems of emergency care delivery. The department maintains close collaborations with experts in cardiac arrest, trauma, sepsis, shock, resuscitation, stroke, heart disease, biostatistics, epidemiology, health services research, and disaster medicine.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham is one of America's premier research universities, ranking among the top 20 in funding from the National Institutes of Health and earning more than $470 million per year in extramural support. UAB is home to the University of Alabama School of Medicine and UAB Hospital, Alabama's major tertiary referral center and only Level I trauma center. With a world-renowned academic health center and 80 interdisciplinary research centers, UAB has a vibrant collaborative medical research community.

Examples of ongoing research at the UAB DEM include:

• Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium - Alabama Resuscitation Center (5U01HL077881-05). UAB is one of nine ROC sites conducting prehospital clinical trials in cardiac arrest and trauma. Ongoing cardiac arrest efforts include the evaluation of early vs. late rhythm analysis and testing of the Impendence Threshold Device (ITD). Ongoing trauma efforts include the administration of hypertonic saline in traumatic brain injury.
• Protocolized Care of Early Septic Shock (ProCESS) (P50 GM076659). This trial assigns septic shock patients to different resuscitation strategies. As one of the participating sites, UAB is leading the consortium in patient enrollments.
• Paramedic Endotracheal Intubation Experience and Patient Outcome (R21-HL084528). This study utilizes probabilistically linked Pennsylvania EMS, hospital, and death records to determine the association between paramedic endotracheal intubation experience and patient outcomes.
• Surge Capacity Networks (N00014-06-1-0991): As a member of the Department of Homeland Security's National Center for the Study of Preparedness and Critical Events Response (PACER), UAB is leading a survey research project to assess the organizational characteristics and emergency management capabilities of voluntary organizations active in disasters (VOAD). Outcomes will be used to legitimize VOAD-capabilities and improve their integration with governmental emergency management systems, thereby increasing surge capacity nation-wide.