The emerging science of gender-specific emergency medicine.

INTRODUCTION It is increasingly evident that sex and gender play an important role in disease and response to medical treatment. Accordingly, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has begun targeting funding and initiatives toward sexand gender-specific investigations. Although the field of Emergency Medicine (EM) has lagged behind other fields of medicine in its attention to sex and gender factors in research and clinical practice, the specialty has recently poised itself for significant growth in this area. The impetus for this increased attention to sexand gender-specific medicine lies in the historical approach to gender in medicine in the United States and recognition of the resulting deficiencies in research, clinical practice, and medical education.