Critical Care
Scope of Critical Care
The practice of critical care in emergency medicine demands clinical expertise, adaptability, and leadership in high-stakes environments. UTHealth Houston Emergency Medicine delivers comprehensive critical care across a wide range of clinical settings, emphasizing early intervention, interdisciplinary collaboration, and evidence-based practice.
Through integrated clinical care and education, the department supports the development of physicians prepared to manage complex critical illness while contributing to innovation and advancement in emergency and critical care medicine.
Resident Critical Care Education
Critical care is a foundational component of emergency medicine training at UTHealth Houston. Our resident critical care education program is designed to prepare trainees to manage the most complex, high-acuity patients across the emergency department, intensive care units, and prehospital environments. Residents develop advanced clinical judgment, procedural expertise, and leadership skills essential for caring for critically ill and injured patients.
Through a combination of structured rotations, bedside teaching, and interdisciplinary collaboration, residents are exposed to a broad spectrum of critical care pathology. Training emphasizes early recognition of life-threatening conditions, evidence-based resuscitation, and seamless coordination with critical care, trauma, and specialty services.
Comprehensive Critical Care Exposure
Residents gain hands-on experience across multiple critical care settings, including medical, surgical, trauma, and cardiovascular intensive care units. These rotations provide exposure to advanced ventilator management, shock states, neurologic emergencies, and multi-organ failure, reinforcing skills that translate directly to emergency department practice.
Clinical training is supported by real-world critical care engagement beyond the hospital walls. Residents work alongside faculty involved in high-profile emergency responses, large-scale event medicine, and prehospital critical care, gaining perspective on systems-based care and rapid decision-making in dynamic environments.
Advanced Therapies & ECMO Experience
UTHealth Houston Emergency Medicine plays an active role in the delivery and advancement of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) as part of comprehensive critical care and resuscitation efforts. The department’s involvement in ECMO reflects a growing role for emergency physicians in the early identification, initiation, and coordination of advanced life support for patients with refractory cardiac and respiratory failure.
Emergency medicine faculty work closely with multidisciplinary partners across critical care, cardiothoracic surgery, perfusion, EMS, and hospital leadership to support both in-hospital and mobile ECMO operations. These efforts include participation in high-acuity resuscitations, rapid-response activations, and complex interfacility or field-based care, where timely decision-making and coordination are essential.
Residents are introduced to ECMO principles through clinical exposure, case-based education, and faculty-led instruction, gaining insight into patient selection, team dynamics, and the role of ECMO within advanced resuscitative care. This experience reinforces the evolving scope of emergency medicine in critical care innovation and prepares trainees to engage confidently in multidisciplinary, high-stakes environments.
Together, these experiences reflect the department’s integrated approach to advanced resuscitation, where emergency medicine plays a central role in delivering and coordinating complex, high-acuity care.
Education, Simulation, and Quality Improvement
Resident education is reinforced through simulation-based training, case-based discussions, and focused critical care didactics. Simulation sessions emphasize high-risk, low-frequency scenarios, allowing residents to practice leadership, communication, and procedural skills in a controlled environment.
Residents are also encouraged to engage in quality improvement and scholarly activities related to critical care. Faculty mentorship supports resident involvement in departmental and institutional initiatives aimed at improving patient outcomes, safety, and systems of care.
Leadership Development & Career Preparation
Critical care training at UTHealth Houston prepares residents for a wide range of career paths, including community practice, academic emergency medicine, and subspecialty fellowship training. Residents work closely with faculty leaders who are actively involved in education, research, quality, and clinical innovation.
For residents interested in pursuing advanced training, the department offers a dedicated Emergency Medicine–Critical Care Fellowship, providing a clear pathway for continued professional development in critical care medicine.
Through comprehensive clinical exposure, advanced therapies, and strong faculty mentorship, UTHealth Houston Emergency Medicine equips residents with the skills and confidence to lead in the care of critically ill patients.