Safety net research in emergency medicine: Proceedings of the Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference on "The unraveling safety net"

A primary goal of the Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference, "Th e Unraveling Safety Net: Research Opportunities and Priorities," was to exp lore a formal research agenda for safety net research in emergency medicine . This paper represents the thoughts of active health services researchers regarding the structure and direction of such work, including some examples from their own research. The current system for safety net care is describ ed, and the emergency department is conceptualized as a window on safety ne t patients and systems, uniquely positioned to help study and coordinate in tegrated processes of care.