September 11, 2012
Sam Keim, MD, MS, has been appointed head of the Department of Emergency Medicine and director of the Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center(AEMRC) at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.Dr. Keim is a UA professor of emergency medicine and was listed among the best physicians in the United States, as selected by his colleagues nationwide, in the 2011-2012 edition of The Best Doctors in America.
Prior to his appointment, Dr. Keim served as interim head of the department since July 2011, when Harvey Meislin, MD, decided to step down. Dr. Meislin served as head of emergency medicine at the UA College of Medicine since 1980, when the Section of Emergency Medicine was established and continued as head after the Department of Emergency Medicine was established in 2001. He served as director of the AEMRC since it was established in 1990. He also was chief of emergency services at The University of Arizona Medical Center – University Campus. He will continue as a UA professor of emergency medicine.
“We are pleased Dr. Keim has accepted this vital position,” says Steve Goldschmid, MD, dean of the UA College of Medicine – Tucson. “Dr. Keim has performed an exceptional job as interim head of the Department of Emergency Medicine. His work is critical in continuing to lead this department as one of the top prehospital and emergency medicine research centers in the United States.”
Dr. Keim notes, “The best way to describe my career to date is to tell you that I was a residency director for 21 years. It was, and to a great extent still is, my professional identity. I trained in South Central Los Angeles in the mid-1980s when the Bloods and Crips declared war on each other. My research has focused on clinical epidemiology, heat stroke and evidence-based medicine. My career goals now are to continue to develop our department to be the best department of emergency medicine in the specialty.
There is no reason why our emergency departments at University and South Campus cannot be best in the Southwest, so that is my pledge to the community of Southern Arizona. We should be known as the quality standard by which others benchmark excellence.”
Dr. Keim served as the residency program director for the UA Department of Emergency Medicine since 1990. He has served as president of the National Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors and as an oral examiner and item writer for the American Board of Emergency Medicine. He also serves on the Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
A 1985 graduate of the UA College of Medicine, Dr. Keim also received his master's degree in clinical epidemiology from the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. He received a bachelor of science degree from Northern Arizona University, where he studied microbiology, chemistry and Spanish. He completed a residency in emergency medicine at the Los Angeles County King Drew Medical Center in 1988. He is board-certified in emergency medicine and is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine.
Dr. Keim has authored numerous peer-reviewed original scientific papers related to heat stroke, physician wellness, research methodology and evidence-based medicine. He has authored many textbook chapters and a McGraw-Hill book, Emergency Medicine On Call.