AEUS Research Grant

Applications for this Grant will be Accepted from May 1, 2024 to August 1, 2024

Purpose of the Award

The SAEMF/AEUS Research Grant awards $10,000 over a one-year period starting July 1 to support a research proposal that evaluates the impact of point-of-care ultrasound on clinical practice or characterize point-of-care ultrasound learning curves. The purpose of this research grant is to fill knowledge gaps in the impact of point-of-care ultrasound on patient outcomes and the amount of training needed to achieve competence in performing point-of-care ultrasound. The research proposals can be:

1. Ultrasound application-specific (e.g. assessing the impact of an ultrasound application with respect to diagnosis and management)
2. Ultrasound practice-specific (e.g. comparing emergency departments with and without point-of-care ultrasound with respect to throughput, cost-effectiveness, patient safety, etc.)
3. Focused on point-of-care ultrasound learning curves to identify performance plateaus for both image acquisition and interpretation. The goals of the grant align with missions of the SAEMF to improve the emergency care of patients and help emergency physicians develop the skills to become successful investigators.

Expectations of the Award

The SAEMF/AEUS Research Grant proposal is expected to:

1. Be measurable and reproducible.
2. Be relevant to the practice of point-of-care ultrasound.
3. Provide evidence-based research that advances the field of point-of-care ultrasound.
4. Address patient outcomes or education in point-of-care ultrasound. Examples include:
   a. Comparing diagnostic accuracy/efficacy and cost-effectiveness of point-of-care ultrasound with other imaging modalities.
   b. Evaluating the impact of point-of-care ultrasound on patient safety, throughput, and patient satisfaction.
   c. Evaluating use of point-of-care ultrasound in non-academic, community-based settings.
   d. Evaluating variation in point-of-care ultrasound use across regions and institutions nationally, to identify best practices with respect to quality assurance, documentation, integration into practice, and breadth of applications.
   e. Creating multi-institutional point-of-care ultrasound databases.
   f. Exploring the use of point-of-care automated ultrasound software.
   g. Comparing point-of-care ultrasound instructional methods.
   h. Evaluating learning curves for image acquisition and interpretation.
   i. Assessing ultrasound competency at any level of medical education (Undergraduate Medical Education, Graduate Medical Education, Continuing Medical Education), including the Emergency Medicine Milestones of the American Board of Emergency Medicine.
   j. Evaluating inter-professional ultrasound educational programs.
   k. Exploring the use of technology for teaching point-of-care ultrasound skills.
   l. Providing evidence for best practices in point-of-care ultrasound training.

The SAEMF/AEUS Research Grant awardee is expected to:

1. Attend the SAEM Annual Meeting during the award year.
2. Submit interim and final progress reports in accordance with SAEMF instructions.
3. Submit an abstract reporting the results of the research project for presentation at the SAEM Annual Meeting. As the selection of research abstracts is a competitive process, submission is expected, acceptance is not assured.
4. Publish a manuscript (first-authored by the awardee) arising from the project in a peer-reviewed journal within two years of completing the award.

Eligibility for the Award

An applicant for the SAEMF/AEUS Research Grant must:

1. Be a member of SAEM and AEUS in good standing at application deadline and during the entire award period.
2. Have an advanced/doctoral or terminal educational degree (e.g., MD, DO, PhD, PharmD, DSc or equivalent).
3. Hold a university appointment in or be actively involved (e.g., have an adjunct appointment) with a department or division of emergency medicine or pediatric emergency medicine at the start of award period. The applicant may work as a clinician at an institution other than the host institution or the institution at which the project will be conducted.
4. Be an early career researcher, defined as completing initial residency training within eight (8) years of the start of the award period. SAEMF will consider requests for exceptions to this requirement for various reasons, including but not limited to medical concerns, disability, and active-duty military service. Each of these requests is reviewed on a case by case basis, and must be made prior to the application deadline. SAEM will approve an automatic extension of one year for childbirth within the early career period. All extension requests must be made to grants@saem.org before the nomination deadline. Fellowship training does not affect the requirement for defining an early career researcher. OR Be an emergency medicine resident in good standing in an Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-approved emergency medicine residency program at the start of the award period.
5. Not have received an SAEMF/AEUS Research Grant previously.

Full Eligibility Criteria, Detailed Instructions, and Additional Information for SAEMF Grants can be found here.

Updated March 13, 2023