What's notable is our absence.

Abstract

As emergency medicine providers, we bear witness to the incredible burden that violence, including gun violence, has on individuals, families, and communities. We see it in ways we do not often think about; increased psychiatric illness, increased ED visits for asthma, higher Adverse Childhood Events scores, cancer, cardiovascular disease and resultant lower life expectancy1 . All of these have been associated with exposure to violence. Of any medical specialty, emergency medicine as a field must embrace the idea that the ED a medical home for the disease of violence. Emergency care providers are among the few healthcare professionals who care for acute violent injuries as well as the downstream effects. We need to develop expertise not only in the acute treatment of violence victims; we need to be experts in screening people for risk and intervening with evidence based supported programs.