FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Common Sense, March/April 2013
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| Andy Walker, MD FAAEM Editor, Common Sense AAEM Board of Directors |
The American Academy of Emergency Medicine turns twenty this year, and Common Sense will honor that milestone in several ways. In this and future issues throughout 2013, you will find two new features: “Blast from the Past” and “The Founders’ Forum.” “Blast from the Past” will reprint highlights and whole articles from early editions of Common Sense, among other historical tidbits. “The Founders’ Forum” will feature articles from the two emergency physicians who founded the Academy, Jim Keaney and Scott Plantz, as well as some of those who helped create AAEM’s bylaws and mission statement during its first year (see the photo in this issue’s “Blast from the Past”).
Many things about AAEM have changed over the past 20 years. The Academy is much bigger, of course, with just over 7,000 members. Common Sense is published six times a year instead of once, and each issue is about five times bigger than those early issues. Despite attempts by many during its first few years to characterize it as a fringe organization populated by malcontents, AAEM is now widely admired as occupying the ethical high ground in emergency medicine, and looked to for leadership on controversial issues in our specialty. It has influence far beyond its size.
