Acute medicine is concerned with the immediate assessment, diagnosis and early specialist management of adult patients who present to, or from within, hospitals as urgencies or emergencies. The College has explored the different approaches to supporting acute medical admissions across Scotland and the activity and the resources applied.

The College formed an acute medicine working group including representatives from the 29 Acute Medicine Units (AMUs). This used the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM) standards as the core focus for data collection to inform local quality improvement. This has led to discussions on establishing a Scottish branch of SAM.

A Clinical Research Fellow completed an MD considering approaches, service configurations and clinical performance in AMUs in Scotland.

Using qualitative data from the Clinical Research Fellow's field research, a study of barriers and enablers to delivering acute care was carried out, and a report will be available shortly.

We have also worked with the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design on designing communication tools to be used in AMUs that will improve the visibility of care journeys and the communication and ability to share amongst the multi-disciplinary team - while also empowering the patient.