"You can try, but you’ll never stop a Badger."
The University of Wisconsin–Madison
You can’t stop a Badger…
Because we Badgers are born with curious minds and endless heart. For 175 years, UW’s life-changing research, innovation and education has served generations of Wisconsin families. We’ll never stop working to make our state — and the world — a better place.
At the BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine, we are a forward-focused academic department of over 50 core faculty and 25 advanced practice providers who are deeply committed to identifying and addressing structural barriers to health and health equity and to fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in all aspects of our work.
Training the next generation of emergency physicians and clinician-scientists is integral to our mission, with 48 residents and fellows being trained each year in our ACGME-accredited emergency medicine residency program and our many fellowship training programs.
Our research enterprise enhances and facilitates high-impact clinical and translational emergency care research and fosters the successful development of investigators dedicated to generating new knowledge and advancing patient care and outcomes.
The Department of Emergency Medicine is deeply committed to improving the health and well-being of the people of Wisconsin and beyond, a goal fundamentally linked to the mission of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. By working in partnership with physicians, hospitals, prehospital providers, and local communities, we provide Wisconsin families with local, accessible health care every day.
To learn more about our department, we invite you to read a message from our distinguished Chair and to visit our education, research, clinical care, and academic divisions pages.
Key Facts
Established: 2007 (division), 2014 (department)
Chair: Manish N. Shah, MD, MPH (2022-present)
Divisions:
Critical Care »
Global Health »
Pediatric Emergency Medicine »
Prehospital Medicine »
Simulation »
Ultrasound »
Primary Teaching Hospital: The University Hospital ED cared for 70,000 adult and pediatric patients in 2023
Research Funding: $13.5M total research & extramural awards, including nine grants (FY24)
Our Institutional Partners
UW Health is the primary teaching affiliate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, serving more than 800,000 patients each year in the upper Midwest and beyond with more than 1,800 physicians and 24,000 staff across six main hospitals and more than 90 outpatient sites. The health system’s total system joint operating agreement revenues are $5.1 billion. UW Health is a separate 501(c)3, governed by the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority, and partners with UW School of Medicine and Public Health to fulfill patient care, research, education and community service missions.
UW Health Hospitals, which includes University Hospital on the UW–Madison campus and UW Health East Madison Hospital on the east side of Madison, has been ranked No. 1 in Wisconsin for 13 years in a row by U.S. News and World Report.
University Hospital is one among a select set of U.S. hospitals named to Newsweek’s “Top 100 Global” list, which includes hospitals in 11 countries around the world. American Family Children’s Hospital is also nationally ranked as a top children’s hospital. UW Health has been designated by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation as a Leader in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality in the Healthcare Equality Index for several years. University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, East Madison Hospital and American Family Children’s Hospital are also recognized as Magnet®-designated facilities for nursing excellence and quality patient care.
The Department of Emergency Medicine also delivers compassionate, high-quality, evidence-based emergency care to children from throughout the region and across the state. Clinical care is primarily delivered at our 11-bed, dedicated pediatric emergency department at the American Family Children’s Hospital — a nationally-ranked, 111-bed facility with pediatric and neonatal surgical intensive care units that have served the special needs of children for more than 100 years. It is a busy Level I pediatric trauma center, one of two in the state, and the only verified pediatric burn center in Wisconsin. American Family Children’s Hospital is also nationally ranked as a top children’s hospital.
Learn more at uwhealth.org or read more facts & figures about the UW Health system.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) is recognized as an international, national, and statewide leader in education, research, and service. Founded in 1907, it transformed into the nation’s first School of Medicine and Public Health in 2005 to integrate the principles and power of interwoven medical and public health approaches in all of its missions.
With more than 5,500 employees, including over 2,000 faculty, the school’s engagement spans the entire state of Wisconsin and includes a deep commitment to improving population health. This commitment manifests itself in innovative models that serve as paradigms for the rest of the country.
With active programs in basic, clinical and public health science, the UW SMPH has a tradition of pioneering research, receiving $641 million in research funding in 2022-23 and constituting 43% of total grants awarded to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. And according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, the UW SMPH ranked 23rd in National Institutes of Health funding among schools of medicine for 2024.
Members of the school rapidly translate discovery into application and continually foster synergies between clinical care, education and research. Consistently ranked among the nation’s top medical schools, SMPH has established high-performance academic programs that are intentionally distributed across the entire spectrum of academic medicine. The school is ranked 22nd in National Institutes of Health funding for schools of medicine in 2023, according to rankings from Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. Its faculty members hold appointments in 27 departments — 17 in the clinical sciences and 10 in the basic sciences. The faculty is composed of some of the nation’s leading researchers, educators and clinicians. This includes several National Medal of Science recipients and National Academy of Science honorees.
Representing the 1,800 faculty physicians of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health is the UW Medical Foundation, the state’s second-largest medical practice group. Learn more at med.wisc.edu.
“The University of Wisconsin–Madison is distinctive in its scale and breadth, the premium we place on our relevance to society, and our commitment to inclusivity in the broadest sense.” — Rebecca M. Blank, Chancellor (2013-2022)
Since its founding in 1848, this campus has been a catalyst for the extraordinary. As a public land-grant university and major research institution, our students, staff, and faculty engage in a world-class education while solving real-world problems.
With a total annual budget of over $4.0 billion including more than $1.52 billion in annual research expenditures, UW–Madison has been in the top 10 in national research spending every year since 1972. The campus is home to more than 25,000 faculty and staff and 50,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree students. Members of the student body represent all 50 states and 116 countries. The university was ranked the number two public university Washington Monthly’s 2023 College Guide and Rankings and is ranked 12th among public institutions in U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 rankings of best colleges.
The Wisconsin Idea 
— the principle that the university should improve people’s lives beyond the classroom — has been guiding the efforts of UW–Madison Badgers for more than a century. The university has been dedicated to studying poverty and social inequity for 50 years, is consistently ranked among the top large schools for producing Peace Corps volunteers and boasts 20 Nobel Prize winners among its faculty and alumni.
Discover the Wisconsin Experience at wisc.edu.
The William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital and Clinics serve 82,000 Veterans across 19 counties in Wisconsin and Illinois. The distinguished five-star VA medical center and teaching hospital provides primary care and specialty health services, including cardiology, emergency services, mental health care, treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicide prevention, women’s health services, and more.
Madison VA Hospital and Clinics are among the leading health care systems serving Veterans in the VA Great Lakes Network (VISN 12), which includes facilities in Wisconsin, Illinois, northwestern Indiana and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The VA Hospital is one of the few heart, lung, kidney, and liver transplant and LVAD programs within the VA, as well as a VA Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC). In 2022, it received the highest national award for patient experience among all VA medical centers in the United States, as well as a five-star rating for patient experience from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The Madison VA is physically contiguous with University Hospital and houses an 11-bed emergency department that provides care to 13,500 adult patients annually and is accredited as a Level 2 Geriatric Emergency Department by the American College of Emergency Physicians. Our faculty physicians provide 12 hours of attending physician coverage daily, and we partner with emergency medicine pharmacists, Women’s Health, Mental Health, critical care and palliative care services to provide comprehensive emergency care for veterans.
Learn more at madison.va.gov.
“To improve the health of Wisconsin’s residents and beyond by training leaders in academic medicine, delivering remarkable health care, and performing impactful emergency care research.”
Our mission statement