Since the fall 2002 examinations, The Model of the Clinical Practice of Emergency Medicine (EM Model) has served as the basis for the content specifications for all ABEM examinations.

The Core Content Task Force II created and endorsed the 2001 Model of the Clinical Practice of Emergency Medicine (EM Model) as published in the June 2001 Annals of Emergency Medicine and Academic Emergency Medicine.

The 2003 EM Model Review Task Force reviewed the 2001 EM Model, as requested by the Core Content Task Force II. Their work was published in the June 2005 Annals of Emergency Medicine and the June 2005 Academic Emergency Medicine.

The 2005 EM Model Review Task Force conducted the second review of the EM Model.  Their work is published in the October 2006 issue of Academic Emergency Medicine and online-only in Annals of Emergency Medicine. 

The 2007 EM Model Review Task Force conducted the third review of the EM Model and the results are reflected in the document links on this page.

In the 2007 EM Model document links on this page, all changes that resulted from the 2007 EM Model Review Task Force appear in bold italics with yellow shading. The changes are summarized in Figure 1.

The EM Model was created through the collaboration of the following six organizations:

·         American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM)

·         American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP)

·         Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD)

·         Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA)

·         Residency Review Committee for Emergency Medicine (RRC-EM)

·         Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM)

The linked document, “2007 Model of the Clinical Practice of Emergency Medicine,” includes as Figure 1, the Summary of the 2007 EM Model Task Force Changes that were approved by the collaborating organizations, and these changes are incorporated into Table 2: Patient acuity definitions; Table 3: Physician task definitions; the Listing of Conditions and Components; Appendix 1; and Appendix 2. All changes appear in bold italics with yellow shading.

The EM Model appears on the ABEM website both as a PDF file and as a Microsoft Word document. The PDF file can be opened, read, and printed. The Word document can be opened, read, printed, and it can also be downloaded and used as you would use any other word processing file. The Listing of Conditions and Components is in a table format to assure that the "x's" don't shift from the appropriate column when the listing is printed. For the complete Listing of Conditions and Components, Patient Acuity, and Physicians Tasks, click on either the PDF version or Word version link above.

The EM Model is presented as a Word document so that its contents can be used to create new documents to serve individual organizational needs. This may include developing future medical school and residency curricula, certification examination specifications, continuing education objectives, research agendas, residency program review requirements, and other documents necessary for the functional operation of the specialty of Emergency Medicine.

The organizations that collaborated to develop the EM Model stress that work products that are created from the EM Model may not be presented as the official EM Model. Please give appropriate credit to the EM Model, where appropriate, in the products you create.