WestJEM is the official journal of the California Chapter of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine and the California Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. WestJEM is now indexed in PubMed with full text in PubMed Central. Emergency Medicine is a specialty which closely reflects societal challenges and consequences of public policy decisions. The emergency department specifically deals with social injustice, health and economic disparities, violence, substance abuse, and disaster preparedness and response. This journal focuses on how emergency care affects the health of the community and population, and conversely, how these societal challenges affect the composition of the patient population who seek care in the emergency department. The development of better systems to provide emergency care, including technology solutions, is critical to enhancing population health. The journal's goal is to be the premier open-access, peer-reviewed emergency medicine journal, drawing submissions from the Western United States and Western Hemisphere, and providing an English language forum for developing emergency care systems throughout the world. The journal’s purpose is to provide original research and review articles in: 1. Optimal patient care through enhanced clinical decision-making, efficiency of evaluation and treatment, medical education and promotion of patient safety. 2. The role of computers in the emergency department, including simulation and information transfer within and between health systems, and between patients and physicians. 3. Injury prevention and population health. 4. Clinical imaging