SUMMER TRAINING AND RESEARCH IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE (STAR-EM)

The UHN Summer Training and Research in Emergency Medicine (STAR-EM)
program serves to cultivate future aspiring EM researchers and clinicians who are

currently enrolled in the undergraduate MD program in Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

STAR-EM advances the goal of cultivating and supporting research in emergency medicine through education,

specialized training, and sustainable presence of collaborating researchers in the ED.

CALL FOR STAR-EM FACULTY SUPERVISORS

Interested staff should submit a cv to konika.nirmalanathan@uhn.ca and complete the application form including a brief (<300 word) proposal and project timeline by February 10, 2026. The proposal should outline the focused question to be addressed through the project this summer and the role of the medical student. The project should be largely achievable within the ten weeks of the STAR-EM curriculum. In compliance with current COVID-19 restrictions for students, the project should not require direct patient contact or attendance in the ED.

Please note the deadline for matching funds via DFCM CREMS is January 26, 2026.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW AND CURRICULUM

A 10-week focused research program within the UHN Emergency Department for Temerty Medicine undergraduate MD students who have completed year 1 or 2. The program has three core components:

Independent research on a pre-selected and designed summer research project
Attending in the Emergency Department to support ongoing EM Projects and shadowing ED physicians
Weekly STAR-EM program curriculum seminar and research updates

Each student will be assigned a STAR-EM research faculty member, who will lead their summer research.

STAR-EM curriculum focuses upon research methods (including ethics, protocol design, data analysis, writing for publication), group review and feedback about research work in progress, and clinical emergency medicine (including ultrasound, simulation, and sports medicine).

Program start date: June 8, 2026.

Supervisor application: February 10, 2026.

Student Application: will open in March/April 2026.

Please e-mail Konika at konika.nirmalanathan@uhn.ca for more details.

PAST PROJECTS - 2025

Evaluating the University Health Network Emergency Department Community Advisory Council
Summary: In an effort to center the lived experiences of the community in their Emergency Departments (EDs), a
Community Advisory Council (CAC) for the UHN ED has been established. The CAC meets with ED leadership and healthcare providers every 1-2 months to consult on decisions central to improving patient care across all UHN EDs. We are looking to evaluate the UHN ED CAC to determine its value and utility, for the department as a whole, staff, and members of the CAC itself. The student will focus specifically on conducting the thematic analysis of the completed interviews with support from our research team.

Evaluating the Acute Care Echocardiography (ACE) Training Program
Summary: The Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration in Emergency Medicine (TAAAC-EM) has developed an Acute Care Echocardiography (ACE) training program to train emergency and critical care medicine residents at Addis Ababa University (AAU) on focused transthoracic echocardiography. During this project, the student will look into the perceived effect and impact on knowledge of residents participating in this pilot ACE workshop. As a pre and post cohort study, this will be done by analyzing pre-reading surveys, as well as pre- and post-workshop evaluations to inform future iterations of the workshop.

Formative evaluation of a Stabilization and Connection Centre (SCC) for stable patients using drugs and alcohol
Summary: The dual crises of ED overcrowding and highly prevalent alcohol and substance use disorders require
novel models of care provision. This is a retrospective, formative evaluation of Stabilization and Connection Centre (SCC) operations and outcomes from Dec 2022 to Dec 2024. Comparative data for intoxicated patients attending UHN Emergency Departments during the same period will be extracted from EPIC. Comparisons between the SCC visits and ED visits will be made for demographics, substances used, EMS offload time, time spent on site, and disposition.