Overview
Catherine Burger, MD is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine. She graduated from the University of Michigan and then matriculated to Michigan State University (MSU) College of Human Medicine. At MSU she was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Following MSU, she completed her emergency medicine residency training at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). After residency, she was appointed Chief Resident and became a Clinical Instructor at VUMC for one year, after which she became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at VUMC. Five years later, she then pursued and completed a two-year fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) and earned PEM board certification. From 2021-2025 she served as the Assistant Program Director for the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at VUMC. In 2025 she joined the Duke Department of Emergency Medicine and was appointed Associate Program Director of the Emergency Medicine Residency Program.
Dr. Burger’s career has primarily focused on bedside teaching, curriculum development, and mentorship. She was the first member from the Department of Emergency Medicine to be inducted into the VUMC Academy of Excellence in Clinical Medicine as well as the Academy of Excellence in Education. She has received six awards for bedside teaching including the John and Judy Jean Chapman Award for Outstanding Teaching, the Andrea Bracikowski, M.D. Annual Pediatric Emergency Department Faculty Teaching Award, as well as Most Influential Teacher and Mentor at the TVA VA Medical Center.
Pediatric emergency medicine and medical education have been Dr. Burger’s primary areas of research and scholarly productivity. Her work has focused on acute pediatric asthma care, identifying pediatric urological emergencies, evaluation of the pediatric patient after an assault, and better understanding procedural consent for children and parents. Her current work examines teaching strategies that promote adaptive expertise and the educational effects of providing trainees with productivity metrics. To further utilize these areas of expertise, Dr. Burger was appointed by the American Board of Emergency Medicine and the American Board of Pediatrics to service as Item Writer for the national certification and maintenance of certification exams.