Matt Reed, EM Consultant at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, and Professor of Emergency Medicine at Edinburgh University, is the new Chair of RCEM’s Research Committee.
He succeeded Professor Jason Smith in mid-January 2024, after Jason completed his three-year term as Chair. Jason will remain on the Committee.
On the appointment, Matt commented: “I am delighted to be taking up this role and my thanks go to the outgoing chair Jason Smith. One of my key objectives is to continue Jason’s excellent work, driving the development of research capacity at all levels in all Emergency Departments and promoting and celebrating emergency medicine research.
“The leadership from the RCEM research committee, and from research networks, has massively improved the quality and relevance of the research we’re doing.
“This is so important: we need to answer the questions that trouble emergency medicine clinicians every day and actively engage with patients in addressing issues that have the most profound impact on them.
“We must make research part of usual clinical care and continually strive to ensure its relevance and accessibility to the RCEM membership. We also need to better promote and celebrate EM research excellence, and share the findings of important research outputs, ensuring their integration into clinical care.”
The RCEM research committee is also working to change the emphasis of training and assessment to better represent research, which must be embedded as a core component of the curriculum at all levels of training from undergraduate to consultant.
“We must enable all clinicians the opportunity to access and undertake research, and most definitely encourage and support those trainees who wish to follow an academic career pathway,” added Matt. “There is a lot of work to do, but luckily one characteristic I have in abundance is my ability to rise to a challenge.”
In his first video as Chair (above), Matt has invited applications from all College members and fellows for the Spring 2024 RCEM Research Grants and encouraged them to seize opportunities to join the Research Committee.
After completing house jobs in Cambridge and Ipswich, Matt spent six months in Emergency Medicine in Oxford and Banbury.
The job was so fantastic that it almost convinced him to commit to EM for good, but just to be certain, Matt took a detour and spent two years training as a surgeon, enduring endless hours of abdominoperineal resections and liver transplants. However, after realising that he preferred diagnosing undifferentiated abdominal pain over surgical marathons, Matt landed a six-month stint in Edinburgh’s Emergency Department that has now miraculously stretched into 23 years (and counting).
In Edinburgh, Matt decided he wanted to be involved in designing, running, and reporting Emergency Medicine studies and trials in challenging areas of acute care. After spending almost his entire training dabbling in various areas of academic EM, not sure what to commit to for the time required for a higher research degree, Matt eventually decided to tackle the unanswered research questions around the ED management of syncope.
He now focuses on this along with other emergency cardiovascular conditions such as palpitations and aortic dissection as well as how the innovative use of novel technology can help patients presenting with these complaints.
When not at work, Matt is a below average golfer, an undistinguished cellist in The Really Terrible Orchestra, and has recently attempted to learn the craft of baking a sourdough loaf, having somehow being the only person to miss this opportunity in lockdown.
“I still struggle not to get involved in any research question that is interesting, novel, and important to patients, which is vital as EMERGE, the Emergency Medicine Research Group Edinburgh, which I lead and has a portfolio that is as eclectic as a chameleon’s wardrobe.
“I firmly believe that research is a core component of good clinical care, that research should be embedded in everyday emergency medicine and that the opportunity to take part in research should be available to all our patients.”
Follow Matt on X (formerly Twitter): @mattreed73
