Executive Summary: The Science of Surge Conference

The proceedings of the conference are presented in this issue of Academic Emergency Medicine. The conference brought together emergency physicians, policy makers, economists, hospital administrators, experts in mathematical modeling, and others to begin laying the academic groundwork for the science of surge. A morning panel session covering definitions of surge and the current state of research was followed by working groups that discussed a conceptual framework, research priorities, and differentiating daily from catastrophic surge. The lunch speaker shared knowledge from the Israeli experience with surge. An afternoon panel focused on research methodologies and processes and was followed by workgroups that discussed metrics, detection, and methods of research inquiry. This conference lays the academic foundation for further research into the science of surge. The challenge ahead is to continue to refine surge capacity concepts, scientifically study and test the theories, and communicate the results to the appropriate funding agencies and policy makers.