Western Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health

Introduction: Biorepositories lack diversity both demographically and with regard to the clinical complaints of patients enrolled. The Emergency Medicine Specimen Bank (EMSB) seeks to enroll a diverse cohort of patients for discovery research in acute care conditions. Our objective in this study was to determine the differences in demographics and clinical complaints between participants in the EMSB and the overall emergency department (ED) population.

Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of participants of the EMSB and the entire UCHealth at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center (UCHealth AMC) ED population across three periods: peri-EMSB; post-EMSB; and COVID-19. We compared patients consented to the EMSB to the entire ED population to determine differences in age, gender, ethnicity, race, clinical complaints, and severity of illness. We used chi-square tests to compare categorical variables and the Elixhauser Comorbidity Index to determine differences in the severity of illness between the groups. 

Results: Between February 5, 2018–January 29, 2022, there were 141,670 consented encounters in the EMSB, representing 40,740 unique patients and over 13,000 blood samples collected. In that same time, the ED saw approximately 188,402 unique patients for 387,590 encounters. The EMSB had significantly higher rates of participation from the following: patients 18-59 years old (80.3% vs 77.7%); White patients (52.3% vs 47.8%), and women (54.8% vs 51.1%) compared to the overall ED population. The EMSB had lower rates of participation from patients ≥70 years, Hispanic patients, Asian patients, and men. The EMSB population had higher mean comorbidity scores. During the six months after Colorado’s first COVID-19 case, the rate of consented patients and samples collected increased. The odds of consent during the COVID-19 study period were 1.32 (95% CI 1.26-1.39), and the odds of sample capture were 2.19 (95% CI 2.0-2.41).

Conclusion: The EMSB is representative of the overall ED population for most demographics and clinical complaints.