Academic Track
The academic track prepares residents to pursue a career in various fields of academic medicine, including, but not limited to education, simulation and research. This highly flexible, two-year track allows residents to specially tailor their experience to their interests. Topics of discussion include resume/CV building, finding mentors within academic medicine, career exploration, collaboration with other tracks to compare and contrast opportunities, and exposure to fellowships within emergency medicine. This track provides the chance to connect with IU's robust alumni network and discover opportunities across the country within the field of academic medicine.
Advocacy Track
The Advocacy Track prepares emergency medicine physician leaders to advocate for patients and drive meaningful change in health care. Residents develop skills in patient-centered advocacy, health policy, legislative processes, professionalism and systems-based practice through mentorship, education, outreach and scholarship.
The track emphasizes social responsibility and understanding individual patients within the broader health care system and community. There is a strong focus on community engagement through volunteering, education on relevant health topics, and professional growth through mentorship. Residents also have opportunities to attend local and national conferences, including the Legislative Advocacy Conference and Leadership Summit in Washington, DC.
Clinical Practice Track
The ED clinical practice track is a two-year longitudinal experience designed for residents interested in gaining a behind-the-scenes understanding of emergency department operations, clinical informatics and administrative decision-making. This track offers direct exposure to how clinical workflows, resource allocation and system-level strategies shape patient care in the ED.
A central component of the track is hands-on experience with Epic, including opportunities for physician builder training, order set development, workflow optimization and clinical decision support design. Residents learn how the electronic health record is built and refined, gaining practical skills to improve efficiency, safety and provider experience.
Participants engage in quarterly journal clubs and interactive workshops focused on operations, informatics and leadership. Dedicated time is provided to work closely with faculty in key administrative and informatics roles, including the ED medical director, department chair and clinical informatics leaders. Through track-specific projects, residents actively contribute to operational improvements, departmental initiatives and EHR optimization efforts while fulfilling core residency requirements.
Community Medicine Track
The community medicine track provides emergency medicine residents with opportunities to explore and prepare for careers in community-based emergency medicine, including rural, free-standing and critical access practice settings. Through mentorship with experienced community physicians, networking events and focused educational programming, residents gain exposure to the unique clinical, operational and career aspects of community practice. The curriculum includes workshops on topics such as billing and documentation, practice models and compensation, EMTALA, resource-limited patient management, and the differences between academic and community emergency medicine. Participants also receive focused clinical development through community emergency department elective rotations, procedure boot camps and experiences designed to build confidence in practicing in diverse community settings.
Critical Care
The critical care track is a two-year experience that provides residents with additional experience in critical care. The track fosters interest in and education about critical care and resuscitation for emergency medicine residents and medical students, provides mentorship for emergency medicine residents interested in pursuing CC fellowship, improves resuscitative skills for use in both the ICU and ED environment and collaborates with other specialties in simulation and procedure lab environments to improve team-based care of the critically ill patient. Experiences include journal clubs, teaching opportunities, extra critical care electives and scholarly activities.
Learn about IU School of Medicine's Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship.
EMS Track
The EMS track serves to introduce residents to EMS medical direction, thereby preparing them to serve as community EMS medical directors or, for those interested in more intensive training, to pursue an EMS fellowship.
During the R1 year, residents can participate in EMS Journal Clubs, conferences and mass gathering events such as the Mini Marathon. Formal participation in the track begins during the R2 year with the opportunity to take over assistant EMS medical directorship of their respective EMS system and spend time on the streets with an EMS physician. As an R3, the resident advances to associate EMS medical director for their system and is also given the opportunity to respond to street EMS calls.
EMS faculty will mentor EMS track residents and have a diverse background in EMS specialties including mass gathering medicine, disaster medicine, tactical EMS, community paramedicine, dive medicine, HEMS and radiation emergency medicine.
Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Track
The POCUS track provides residents with an opportunity to advance their point-of-care ultrasound skills through longitudinal education, hands-on workshops and faculty mentorship. Residents build proficiency in both foundational and advanced POCUS applications while developing the skills to integrate ultrasound into bedside diagnosis, procedural care and clinical decision-making.
Track participants also have opportunities to participate in POCUS education, mentor and teach other learners, and train for ultrasound skills competitions at national emergency medicine conferences. Through these experiences, residents develop the expertise and confidence to become POCUS leaders in their clinical practice and future careers.
Sports Medicine Track
The sports medicine track gives emergency medicine residents the opportunity to expand their clinical expertise in musculoskeletal care and athletic injury management while complementing their emergency medicine training.
Opportunities within the track include:
- Sports medicine clinic experiences
- Sideline and athletic event coverage across professional, collegiate, high school and community sports
- Musculoskeletal ultrasound education including ultrasound-guided procedures
- Sports medicine-focused didactics and hands-on workshops
- Evaluation and management of acute and overuse athletic injuries
- Rehabilitation and return-to-play decision-making
- Mentorship from sports medicine faculty and team physicians
- Opportunities for sports medicine-related scholarly activity
Whether you are interested in team medicine or simply becoming a more confident physician for the active patient, the track provides practical, high-yield experience you can apply directly to your practice — from the emergency department to the sidelines.