Ralph Riviello, MD, MS

I am honored to submit my candidacy for a role on the AACEM Executive Team to represent you and my colleagues in academic Emergency Medicine. I have had over 26 years of experience in academic emergency medicine. After graduating from Hahnemann University SOM, I completed my EM residency at Allegheny General Hospital in 1997 and served as Chief Resident in my final year of residency. I received a master’s degree in clinical forensic medicine in 2006 and have applied that knowledge and experience in building my academic niche. During my career, I have held leadership roles in many spheres including, Director of Clinical Research, Associate Program Director, Vice Chair of Clinical Operations, and now Chair of Emergency Medicine. My experience as Chair has been in both the community academic and university settings. I am currently the Chair of EM at UT Health San Antonio. I have been a long-standing member of SAEM and AACEM and currently serve on the AACEM Leader Development Committee and the DEI Workgroup. I did complete the Chair Development Program and found it invaluable in the transition to Chair, and feel it is one of the most important member benefits of AACEM. Though I have not served in an SAEM leadership role, I am past president and former board member of the Pennsylvania ACEP chapter and have been a ACEP Section Leader.

I have seen a lot of changes in academic emergency medicine during my career and in my 6.5 years as a Chair, I’ve experienced the challenges of taking a relatively young department and transforming it into a very strong and respected department at my school. During that time, the department gained academic, clinical, research, and scholarly respect. Our specialty deserves academic recognition and respect and am committed to that mission.  

My work with AACEM and interactions with all of you, my Chair friends, have been invaluable in my growth and successes as chair. I have truly benefited from the knowledge, experiences, mentorship, wisdom, and counsel of many past and current members of this organization. I feel it is time for me to pay it forward and help shape the future of the organization. I hope to continue the good work AACEM has done and hope to make the organization even stronger. 

I feel there are several important priorities facing AACEM over the next few years and I would work to make meaningful contributions to tackle them head on. First, we need to continue to increase Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion activities and practices in our specialty, departments, and for our patients. Next, we need to ensure there is a strong pipeline of students, residents, and faculty into Emergency Medicine and we must ensure ways to recruit and retain them along their career trajectory.  In order for that to happen, we must continue to enhance our leader development through the CDP and, eLEAD programs. Leader development is a crucial aspect of AACEM. Additionally, boarding and crowding is having a tremendous impact on our practice, patients, and learners.  I do not think we have realized all its effects on our student and residents. We need to work with other organizations in the house of medicine, our schools, and hospital partners to develop, study, and implement, meaningful, sustainable solutions and not rely on “rearranging the deck chairs” methods that have limited or short-term effectiveness.  And finally, we need to ensure fair and appropriate reimbursement for clinical care as well as a consistent, sustained federal funding for research.  We all know the financial challenges our departments face, and more needs to be done to relieve this burden. 

It would be an honor to be elected to the AACEM Executive Committee and I look forward to serving you and Academic Emergency Medicine.  I promise to use my passion and talents to face our challenges and to ensure an exciting and vibrant future for emergency medicine. Thank you for your consideration.