title: Emergency medicine redux: the rise and fall of a community medical specialty.
abstract: The specialty of Emergency Medicine has evolved circuitously . The poor relation of medicine, previously the domain of moonlighting dermatologists and semi-retired physicians, we considered it a diamond in the rough, a wealth of opportunity hidden by the prejudice of established specialties . We tailored the discipline to meet our needs and desires. As we created form from void, we generated an interest in a practical area of medicine previously indulged only theoretically. Now we are enlarging geometrically as a specialty and have discovered that our actual role as practicing physicians in the community hospital setting has turned out differently than we had conceived in training. As we overpower the available market by expanding our numbers, we are learning about some practical realities that are only now becoming apparent.
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004465:Economic Competition; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000639:trends*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics*; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D013038:Specialization / Q000639:trends*; D014481:United States