Welcome to ECSL!
The Emergency Care Systems Lab (ECSL) is a collaborative initiative led by the BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine. We aim to transform emergency care through clinical operational initiatives and academic innovations developed from transdisciplinary collaborations across the University of Wisconsin–Madison and UW Health.
Get involved: To learn more about the Emergency Care Systems Lab or collaborate on a project, please contact us at ECSL@g-groups.wisc.edu and follow us on LinkedIn. Together, we can advance the next generation of emergency care solutions.
Learn More About ECSL
Our Mission
ECSL endeavors to use a systems-based approach to apply new technologies to transform emergency care — improving quality, efficiency, patient experience, health equity, and clinician wellness.
Our Strategy
We bridge clinical operations, education, and research by bringing together a transdisciplinary team of clinical practitioners, engineers, data scientists, designers, and health services researchers.
Our Approach
We collaborate closely across UW–Madison and UW Health to foster design thinking, rapid-cycle quality improvement, and seamless integration across all missions.
Our Values
- Systems thinking. We apply systems design approaches to design the sociotechnical emergency care system to achieve the quintuple aim.
- Transdisciplinary collaboration. We maximize our impact through industry, academic partnerships, and cross-campus collaborations that leverage the world-class expertise available at UW–Madison.
- Alignment. We maximize alignment between disciplines to ensure:
- Research is relevant, translatable, and impactful.
- Operations re efficient, effective, and evidence-based.
- Education effectively prepares trainees to deliver high-quality medical care in evolving health care systems.
- Widespread impact. We translate and disseminate our work to diverse audiences.
Research and Projects
ECSL engages in projects ranging from developing predictive analytics and clinical decision support tools to conducting community-engaged research and quality improvement initiatives. We partner with local and national organizations to ensure our innovations are grounded in real-world applications and provide measurable impacts in emergency care.
Featured Ongoing ECSL Projects:
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Multi-site Trial to Improve Dementia Care in the Emergency Department
The $55 million Emergency Departments LEading the Transformation of Alzheimer’s and Dementia care (ED-LEAD) study is a nationwide clinical trial across 80 sites, testing three interventions to improve emergency care for people living with dementia (PLWD) discharged home. One of these — the community paramedic-led transition intervention (CPTI) — was developed at the University of Wisconsin Department of Emergency Medicine by Dr. Manish N. Shah and his team.
The study aims to:
- Refine the three interventions (ED redesign, nurse-led phone care, and CPTI) for feasibility and usability at two pilot sites;
- Evaluate their individual and combined effectiveness in reducing ED revisits, hospitalizations, and improving time at home through a cluster-randomized trial; and
- Identify factors that influence implementation across diverse patients, providers, and sites.
The ultimate goal is to transform ED visits from moments of crisis into opportunities to improve outcomes for PLWD and their care partners.
This research is supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (U19AG078105).
Multi-site Implementation of Clinical Decision Support to Prevent Future Falls
This project focuses on reducing fall risk in older adults after emergency department (ED) visits, which is a leading cause of injury in this population. Leveraging advanced technology, we use an innovative Clinical Decision Support (CDS) system that integrates with electronic health records (EHR) to identify patients at high risk of falling.
The CDS analyzes patient data during the ED visit and, if a high risk is detected, alerts the clinician and recommends a referral to a specialized falls prevention clinic. The system is designed to work seamlessly within existing workflows and adjusts in real time based on clinic availability to prioritize high-risk patients.
Currently being tested at three UW Health EDs, the project seeks to improve referral rates, enhance preventive care, and reduce future fall-related injuries — paving the way for broader adoption across health care systems.
This project is supported by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1R18HS027735-01A1).
Human Factors & Predictive Analytics to Improve Patient Flow
In this project, we are implementing an electronic health record (EHR)-integrated machine learning model to predict patient admission to an inpatient unit from the emergency department. The interdisciplinary team — blending operations and research — validated a vendor-trained model, mapped the patient admission process, and explored how our model’s output predictions could support clinical decision-making.
This project is supported by the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research Learning Health System, funded through the National Institute of Health (NIH/NCATS UL1TR002737).
ECSL Team
Contact Us
To learn more about the Emergency Care Systems Lab or collaborate on a project, please contact us at ECSL@g-groups.wisc.edu or via the form below.
The Emergency Care Systems Lab is a transdisciplinary initiative at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and UW Health.