Emory medical student awarded a firearm injury prevention research grant
Emory medical student Henry Schwimmer, mentored by emergency medicine faculty members Drs. Lauren Hudak and Jonathan Rupp, was recently awarded a $5,000 firearm injury prevention research grant from the Emergency Medical Foundation (EMF) and the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine (AFFIRM). Schwimmer was one of two grant recipients.
Schwimmer’s grant is titled “Rural Emergency Department Firearm Assessment, Screening, and Treatment (FAST) Trial.” With the grant funding, Schwimmer will work with his mentors to develop and expand effective screening tools and tailored interventions to improve firearm safety practices among at-risk patients in rural emergency departments. “My goal is to better understand the unique needs of rural ED patients and use this knowledge to develop effective approaches to preventing firearm morbidity and mortality – a vastly underfunded yet leading cause of death in this country,” stated Schwimmer.
When asked how the grant will change the practice of emergency medicine, Schwimmer stated, “Emergency medicine is uniquely suited to lead injury prevention efforts because of its broad reach and diverse patient population and firearm safety, professional societies argue, falls squarely within the specialty’s scope of practice. Many providers, however, report they don’t provide these services in part because they believe they lack the evidence-based tools to be effective safety counselors. I hope this research will contribute to the knowledge gaps within the existing significant body of work on firearm injury prevention and give EM providers new, evidence-based tools they can use effectively in their practices.”
Schwimmer, who graduates from medical school in 2020, was inspired to choose medicine as a career and emergency medicine as his future specialty partly because of his passion for preventing violence and injury. “The grant validates the specialty’s recognition of firearm injury prevention as a crucial, albeit developing, component of the practice of emergency medicine,” stated Schwimmer.
Lauren Hudak, Schwimmer’s mentor, praised Schwimmer saying “Henry is an emerging leader in both emergency medicine and firearm injury prevention. His EMF Grant is so well-deserved, and I greatly look forward to working with him to see the project come alive in the next few months. He is simply one of the most talented students and colleagues I have had the pleasure of knowing and we are extremely lucky to have him on the team. (hopefully for many years to come!)”
Schwimmer will be applying to emergency medicine residency programs in the fall. Hopefully, Emory will get a chance to snag this talented aspiring Emergency Medicine physician.
His primary goals after residency training are to become an outstanding emergency medicine clinician and to produce and support violence prevention and firearm safety efforts through unbiased, solid research.