An emergency physician is a physician who works at an emergency department to care for acutely ill patients. The emergency physician is a specialist in advanced cardiac life support (advanced life support in Europe), trauma care such as fractures and soft tissue injuries, and management of other life-threatening situations.

In some European countries (e.g. Germany, Austria and Denmark), emergency physicians are also part of the emergency medical service and are dispatched together with EMTs and paramedics in cases of life-threatening situations for patients (heart attacks, serious accidents, resuscitations). In the United States, emergency physicians are mostly hospital-based, but they often work on air ambulances and mobile intensive-care units.

When a patient is brought into the emergency department, he or she is usually sent to triage first. The patient may be triaged by an emergency physician, a paramedic, or a nurse; in the United States, triage is usually performed by a registered nurse. If the patient is admitted to the hospital, another physician such as a cardiologist or neurologist takes over for the emergency physician.