“Emergency Medicine Secrets contains the most important highlights of our specialty. It is based on our years of experience teaching hundreds of medical students and residents and covers what students and residents really need to know.” – Vincent J. Markovchick, MD
Growing up in the coal regions of northeastern Pennsylvania in the fifties and sixties, there were several things that made me interested in medicine. There were two television shows featuring doctors — “Ben Casey” and “Dr. Kildair” — which I watched religiously. I also read books by a physician named Tom Dooley who was a missionary to Laos. He wrote The Night They Burned the Mountain and Before I Sleep. Those things kind of piqued my interest in wanting to be a physician.
My reasons for choosing emergency medicine have to do with skiing. I went to medical school at Temple University in Philadelphia. I started skiing in college and continued to ski in medical school on the east coast. Some upperclassmen in medical school did their residencies in Colorado and told me about the skiing. I didn’t realize that skiing is very different out west. So I decided to do a rotating internship in Colorado in 1970, at the Denver General emergency department. We worked 72 hours a week in a very busy E.D., which was not air-conditioned in July. I had a great time. I had such a good time that I switched rotations with my fellow classmates and ended up doing about four months of my internship there. After that, I knew that I wanted to do that as my career.
Emergency Medicine Secrets has evolved in content and in breadth. The first edition didn’t have as many chapters. As emergency medicine evolved, we added chapters. There are now chapters on ultrasound, pre-hospital care, disaster medicine, weapons of mass destruction issues that we added after 9/11, and toxicology. As emergency medicine research has expanded, we expanded some of the existing chapters, too, such as that on resuscitation. We selected authors who are experts in those areas to write the chapters. Emergency Medicine Secrets is an evolving text. It really does change from edition to edition.
There’s so much information out there. With the information explosion in medicine, it’s mind-boggling to try figure out where to find the information you need. A medical student who rotates through various specialties can’t be expected to read a textbook for every one. It’s just not possible. The Secrets series and Emergency Medicine Secrets serve a very nice need for medical students. The book is in a very easy question-and-answer format that students can read while they’re doing their emergency medicine rotation. Emergency Medicine Secrets contains the most important highlights of our specialty. It is based on our years of experience teaching hundreds of medical students and residents and covers what students and residents really need to know.
Bio
Vincent J. Markovchick, MD, FAAEM, FACEP, is Professor Emeritus of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine and Past Director of Emergency Medical Services at Denver Health Medical Center. He is the former Denver Health Director of Emergency Medical Services. He is the co-author of Emergency Medicine Secrets, 5th Edition.
Dr. Markovchick has been instrumental in the development of emergency medicine for more than three decades. He has been an oral board examiner for the American Board of Emergency Medicine, president of the Colorado chapter of the ACEP, co-editor of the Annals of Emergency Medicine, vice-president of the Colorado Trauma Institute, Medical Director of the Denver Fire Department, emergency physician to Pope John Paul II and World Youth Day, President of the American Board of Emergency Medicine, and chairman of the ACEP Academic Affairs Committee, among many other positions.
Dr. Markovchick’s many awards include the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association’s Excellence in Teaching Award, the Denver Health and Hospitals’ Outstanding Career Service Faculty Teaching Award, ACEP’s Outstanding Contribution to Education Award, the Peter Rosen Leadership Award, and the Alumni Achievement Award from Temple University School of Medicine. Dr. Markovchick has been named in Best Doctors in America, was named a Hero of Emergency Medicine by the American College of Emergency Physicians, was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from Denver Health Emergency Medicine Residency, was the inaugural recipient of the Legacy Award from the Colorado chapter of the ACEP, and was appointed first Emeritus Professor of Emergency Medicine by the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
Since his retirement as director of the Department of Emergency Medicine in 2009, Dr. Markovchick has enjoyed reading, traveling, and skiing, as well as continuing to perform several clinical shifts per month at the Denver Health Medical Center.
