About Us

The Emergency Medicine Student Interest Group (EMSIG), organized in 1995, has grown to become the largest student interest group at the Keck School of Medicine. EMSIG operates within the Department of Emergency Medicine at Los Angeles General Hospital under the direct guidance of Dr. Taku Taira, the organization’s advisor and faculty mentor. Through partnership with the Department of Emergency Medicine, EMSIG offers medical students hands-on clinical experience, mentorship with residents and faculty members, procedure-based workshops, and research opportunities. EMSIG attracts a large number of first- and second-year medical students because its shadowing program allows students to gain early clinical experience in one of the country’s busiest and most prestigious emergency departments. Owing to the success of this shadowing program is the enthusiasm that the attending physicians and residents in L.A. General’s emergency department have for teaching. Faculty members from the Emergency Department also give monthly lunchtime lectures to introduce medical students to topics of interest ranging from head trauma to shark bites and lead workshops in techniques such as suturing and intubation. The Department of Emergency Medicine has been generous in offering mentorship through EMSIG in a variety of ways. Students may be paired up with a faculty mentor early in their medical school careers. EMSIG’s annual end-of-the-year reception also gives medical students the chance to talk with fourth-year-students who just completed the match process, residents, and faculty members from the Department of Emergency Medicine. Mentors are just as willing to help students navigate their course toward finding a specialty of interest as they are in sharing their own interest in Emergency Medicine. EMSIG also offers medical students the chance to attend several Emergency Medicine conferences. Regardless of which specialty medical students in EMSIG end up choosing, members of EMSIG credit the interest group in playing an important role in providing clinical experience in an exciting field and in helping them make personal career decisions.