UTMB Sealy Department of Emergency Medicine Residency Program Overview

For many patients, the emergency department (ED) is the gateway to hospital care. The physicians who receive these patients must be able to respond to a wide variety of medical needs, playing a critical role in setting the patient’s path to healing. It is one of many reasons a highly skilled, well-trained emergency medicine workforce is essential.

Dr. Jehle’s distinguished career includes numerous academic and community hospital appointments, and a 27-year run as the Buffalo Bills’ Director of Emergency Medical Services. Notably, he has led the development of EM residency programs at three different academic medical centers. He is excited to work on a fourth and fifth residency program at UTMB.

“There's something sacred about the practice of emergency medicine. We are the safety net in the United States for health care. We take care of everybody regardless of their ability to pay, any time of day, any kind of complaint, any age, and there's something special about that,” Dr. Jehle says.

The American College of Emergency Physicians defines emergency medicine as a specialty “dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of unforeseen illness or injury.” EM physicians must be prepared to handle an array of cases, including respiratory distress, traumatic injuries, severe bleeding, cardiac and stroke symptoms, fractures, and complex wounds.

Emergency physicians also play vital roles beyond the ED—in urgent care centers, disaster response, and extreme environments. Dr. Jehle highlights UTMB’s programs in Aerospace Medicine and Polar Operations as areas of collaboration.

Dr. Jehle’s clinical expertise includes airway management (particularly during his NFL tenure), trauma, oximetry research, and cardiac resuscitation with head cooling. He is perhaps best known for pioneering the use of bedside ultrasound in the United States. With ultrasound probes now compact enough to plug into smartphones, he envisions integrating this tool into the core of medical training at UTMB.

“Ultrasound probes will likely become as essential as the stethoscope was when I started medical school,” he says. “You bought one on day one, and it stayed with you throughout your training. We are bringing ultrasound more deeply into the curriculum at UTMB with several ultrasound fellowship-trained faculty members.”

Interest in emergency medicine among UTMB medical students has remained strong, with 10–20 graduates pursuing EM residencies annually. The new UTMB Emergency Medicine Residency will support five residents per year in its three-year ACGME-accredited program, along with two residents per year for the 4-year combined Emergency Medicine/Aerospace Medicine Program.