Emergency Medicine and Public Health, An Issue of Emergency Clinics

As an important component of the health care infrastructure, emergency departments are placed at a critical interface between emergent clinical care and public health. This issue of the Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America focuses on the spectrum of public health issues that impact the practice of emergency medicine and which are faced by practicing emergency physicians every day.  Topics include:: respiratory threats, emerging infectious diseases, ED overcrowding, end of life care, racial and ethnic disparities, issues of health promotion and disease prevention, the impact of substance abuse (including alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs), injury and violence prevention, public health research and public health surveillance in the ED, and the impact of homeless and disadvantaged patients. This issue will have value to emergency physicians, researchers and public health practitioners.