Building and strengthening relationships between academic departments/divisions of emergency medicine and rural and regional emergency departments

Objectives: Make recommendations on approaches to building and strengthening relationships between academic departments or divisions of Emergency Medicine and rural and regional emergency departments. Methods: A panel of leaders from both rural and urban/academic practice environments met over 8 months. Draft recommendations were developed from panel expertise as well as survey data and presented at the 2018 Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) Academic Symposium. Symposium feedback was incorporated into final recommendations. Results: Seven recommendations emerged and are summarized below: 1) CAEP should ensure engagement with other rural stakeholder organizations such as the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada. 2) Engagement efforts require adequate financial and manpower resources. 3) Training opportunities should be promoted. 4) The current operational interface between the academic department of Emergency Medicine and the emergency departments in the catchment area must be examined and gaps addressed as part of building and strengthening relationships. 5) Initial engagement efforts should be around projects with common value. 6) Academic Departments should partner with and support rural scholars. 7) Academic departments seeking to build or strengthen relationships should consider successful examples from elsewhere in the country as well as considering local culture and challenges. Conclusion: These recommendations serve as guidance for building and strengthening mutually beneficial relationships between academic departments or divisions of Emergency Medicine and rural and regional emergency departments.