Mark Plaster, MD, is not your typical emergency physician and certainly not your typical politician. Born the son of a minister in the Midwest, Dr. Plaster focused on academics and basketball throughout high school so he could land a full-ride basketball scholarship to college, where he met and married his college sweetheart, Rebecca. Dr. Plaster and Rebecca went on to raise three children, who, so far, have given them seven grandchildren.

Mark Plaster, MD

As an emergency physician, Dr. Plaster has spent most of his life working the night shift in some of our nation’s biggest cities. He received his law degree in health law so he could better understand the health care field and the policy and politics behind it. Dr. Plaster started writing for a medical magazine and eventually realized he could produce a magazine himself. He started a publishing company and grew it to produce two national magazines and one international magazine every month, all of which started on a picnic table and a dot-matrix printer in his basement. Today, Emergency Physicians Monthly is one of the most widely read emergency medicine publications in the industry, and Dr. Plaster’s “Night Shift” columns have been compiled into a book of the same title.

In 2001, with his eldest son preparing to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, Dr. Plaster, at the age of 50, volunteered his medical expertise in service to our nation and joined the Navy Reserves. Dr. Plaster became Lt. Commander Plaster and was soon deployed to Iraq, where he led a shock trauma team during the first year of the invasion of Iraq. Upon returning home, he was again called on to serve his nation when he was asked to provide expert advice on an expansive classified report for the President of the United States through the Department of Homeland Security regarding our nation’s readiness for a large-scale catastrophic attack on the homeland. Lt. Commander Plaster was again asked to serve, and he returned to Iraq in 2008 to provide humanitarian care for the Iraqi people and train Iraqi medical staffs.

In addition to his successes as an emergency physician, veteran, lawyer, and businessman, Dr. Plaster now wants to take on one more challenge: member of Congress. Make no mistake, however, Dr. Plaster isn’t a career politician and isn’t looking to become one. He just wants to bring his experience to Washington to address the needs of the people of Maryland and the country.

ACEP Now caught up with Dr. Plaster to talk about taking on the challenge of running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Maryland’s 3rd district.

LAC: What were the biggest motivators for you to run for the House?

MP: In all honesty, I had been thinking about getting involved in politics ever since I graduated from law school in 1989. While I was in law school and then practicing law, I was always interested in how much politics affected the practice of both emergency medicine and law. Although I was interested in politics and potentially running for office, the realities of being a Republican living in a heavily Democratic congressional district kept me from taking the next step. I figured that, as a practicing emergency physician and a contributor to both EM Law and EP Monthly, I was doing my part to help the specialty and patients. Things all changed for me in 2003 when I was deployed to Iraq for the first time at the same time as my son who had graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. As part of a shock trauma team, I witnessed the personal sacrifice of the Marines with whom I served, and my perspective on many things changed. I developed a much deeper and more passionate sense of patriotism. The women and men with whom I served stepped out of their comfort zone and took on the tough challenges. After I returned from my second deployment to Iraq, people started encouraging me to run for office. However, it wasn’t until 2014, when Republican Larry Hogan won the governor’s race—only the second Republican to hold that seat in nearly 50 years—that I realized it was my turn to take my knowledge, experience, and passion and make a run for the U.S. House.

LAC: What are the key legislative issues that you are focusing on in your campaign?

MP: I believe that we, as a nation, need to rebuild a broad-based economy. As emergency physicians, we really haven’t felt the effects of the economic downturn in this country. Patients keep coming to the ED, and our incomes have been pretty stable. But as a small business owner, I have seen how the “baked in” regulation and tax structures in this country have really hindered the growth of small businesses. Because of the unfriendly regulatory environment, new small business start-ups are at the lowest levels since the President Carter years. I also believe that our national security is directly tied to our economic security, which makes it even more critical to fix our economy. The national health care system is also critical to the overall health of the nation and will continue to go through significant transition. Physicians need to develop a better understanding of what patients need and then get involved early on in the process of laws being written rather than reacting to laws passed by Congress and rules promulgated by government agencies.

LAC: How can the house of emergency medicine be more supportive of emergency physicians who are interested in the political arena?

MP: First, I hope that all emergency physicians realize what a tremendous opportunity we have with Joe Heck running for the U.S. Senate. I believe that Joe will win that race and admire the fact that when Joe first ran for the Nevada State Senate, he took on a 20-year incumbent. My race this year is against a 10-year incumbent; I can only hope to have the same success that Joe did in his first race. EM docs also need to know that it does take money to run a campaign. I would hope that every EM doc would make even a small contribution to the campaigns of EM docs that are running for office. The other thing that EM docs need to do is get more involved with organized medicine at the state and national level. Being involved in your state ACEP chapter or national ACEP is a great way to start being more comfortable with understanding politics. EM docs can’t be afraid of the political process. For crying out loud, if we can learn medicine, then we can learn the process of how laws are made. You don’t have to be a lawyer.

LAC: What do you see as potential solutions to the hyper-partisanship that exists within Congress?

MP: The problem with Congress today is that too many people in Congress are career politicians, including my opponent. My opponent has voted with his party leadership 99.8 percent of the time because he wants to stay in good standing with his party. But that means that he cares more about his political party than he does about making good policy. At the age of 64, I am not running for Congress to have another career. I have plenty of real-world experience, which many members of Congress don’t have. I’m running in order to fix problems and, if I can be successful in Congress, would be happy to put myself out of a job.

LAC: How do you believe EM doc candidates like yourself can work more closely with ACEP?

MP: ACEP has real potential for developing political leaders through its advocacy programs. I am embarrassed that I wasn’t more involved in ACEP leadership in my career, although as a locum doc and traveling for over 25 years, it was tough for me to get involved. I know that the ACEP Leadership and Advocacy Conference is a great program, and EM docs need to take advantage of that and ACEP’s other educational opportunities to understand the issues. In addition to knowing the issues, docs need to get to know the people involved in politics. It isn’t enough to just know the issues, you have to reach out to elected officials and make sure your voice is heard.

LAC: How can emergency physicians find out more about your campaign?

MP: The first place to start is on my campaign website, www.plasterforcongress.com. There is information about my views on state and national issues on the website. Docs can get a better sense of who I am on a more personal basis by checking out my Facebook page.

Lastly, if docs want to reach out to me directly, they can email me at either doc@plasterforcongress.com or erdocmark@gmail.com. If docs want to really just talk about the issues or the campaign, I would also be happy to just talk directly. I can be reached at 302-545-0406.