Emergency medicine has progressed far beyond what its originators imagined. Once merely an afterthought within the health care system, it now serves as the entry point for millions. Daily, our emergency departments act as the main access to the hospital and, for many, the sole entry into health care.

This is why I contend that emergency medicine upholds human rights.

Reflect on the patient demographics of any emergency department: we assist the impoverished, the uninsured, the underinsured. We attend to every patient regardless of race, faith, gender, pronouns, or political views. We care for children, the elderly, the disabled, the addicted, the anxious. We engage with patients without judgment, prerequisites, or the authority to decide who is “deserving.” This universality is not just a federal directive but an obligation; it epitomizes human rights in action.

Yet, too frequently, we in emergency medicine express regret about what our specialty has transformed into. “I seldom practice at the pinnacle of my abilities.” “This is not an emergency.” “Why are they even here?”

I have voiced these sentiments myself. However, I acknowledge they overlook the essence. Emergency medicine has already expanded significantly beyond its initial confines. We have embraced neglected areas of medicine (toxicology, ultrasound, wilderness medicine, global health) because our specialty is inherently adaptable, versatile, and responsive to societal needs. We are a place where “broken” elements find renewed purpose, and that is precisely our strength.

Now is the moment to wholeheartedly accept what we are.

The challenges we confront today (persistent boarding, excessive capacity, endless wait times) are signs of a profound truth: access to health care in this nation is strikingly inequitable. Horizontal equity (the concept that everyone receives the same care at the entry point) is what the emergency department offers. Anyone can enter through our doors. Yet vertical equity (the ability to access higher levels of care when necessary) remains unattainable for far too many. Critical care, surgery, rehabilitation, palliative services: these continue to be privileges, not rights.

Yet, in the emergency department, we initiate these processes daily. We resuscitate. We stabilize. We connect. We occupy the core of a complex health care system, with specialists, hospitals, and community resources rotating around us. Too frequently, the system only operates because we propel it.

That is why emergency medicine must reclaim its new identity, not as a temporary solution, not as a receptacle for overflow, but as a human rights specialty.

If you wish to witness the true essence of health care, spend a single night in an emergency department. Observe clinicians caring for patients who have nowhere else to turn, who have slipped through every other gap. You will witness compassion without conditions, access without obstacles, humanity without hierarchy.

Kintsugi is the art of mending pottery with glue and gold to reassemble broken pieces, often resulting in something remarkable and more beautiful in the process. That is what emergency medicine already embodies. It is time we proclaimed it openly.

Matthew Ryan is an emergency physician.