Foreword by Jeremy Samuel Faust, MD, MS, FACEP
Peter Rosen, MD, a giant in the field of emergency medicine, died on Nov. 11, 2019, in Tucson, Arizona, from complications of long-standing cardiac and renal disease. He was 84 years old. Dr. Rosen’s professional life and legacy were defined by a decades-long campaign to legitimize emergency medicine as a discipline, a field of study, and a vital academic specialty. In these efforts, he was largely successful. He was the author of hundreds of academic articles, he founded the Journal of Emergency Medicine, and he was the first emergency physician elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He founded two prestigious emergency medicine residency programs and taught at several others in a career that spanned six decades. The recipient of droves of awards and accolades as a medical educator, he will perhaps best be remembered as the founding editor of the first definitive textbook for the field of emergency medicine, Rosen’s Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice, known today simply as “Rosen’s.”
His landmark 1979 essay, “The Biology of Emergency Medicine,” largely defined the landscape of a field still in its infancy, laying out the dueling responsibilities of the well-trained emergency physician: the identification and treatment of life- and limb-threatening conditions on one hand, and the cognitive discipline of confidently reassuring and discharging the well on the other. He argued convincingly that the unique skills of the emergency physician could not be adequately performed by physicians from other specialties, who typically had expertise in only one particular facet of emergency medicine.
Dr. Rosen mentored hundreds of emergency physicians and had many more thousands of admirers. Equal parts intellectual and indelicate, he furnished his colleagues and disciples with a lifetime of memorable quotations, both amusing and poignant. His insights, quips, and bon mots are often repeated, passed down from one generation to the next, making him a kind of modern-day Osler.
I have asked Dr. Richard Wolfe to provide some personal recollections.
Dr. Faust is ACEP Now Medical Editor in Chief.
Peter Rosen died on the evening of Nov. 11, 2019, slipping off quietly, his wife and best friend, Ann, at his side, as she had been throughout their 60-year marriage.
Medically, his death came as no surprise. He had long suffered from coronary artery disease and ischemic cardiomyopathy. In the last year of his life, he was on dialysis, had become frail, and used a wheelchair to get around. But until the end, his mind remained brilliant, incisive, and iconoclastic. To all of us who knew him, his death still feels untimely.
9 Responses to “In Memory of Dr. Peter Rosen, a Founder of Emergency Medicine”
December 14, 2019
R HouleI still remember Dr Rosen’s famous “Pretzel Hold Story”.
December 15, 2019
Paul Orcutt MD, FACEPDr. Rosen was the one person I have always respected and admired. My only meeting with him was many decades ago when he administered my oral board exam.
Thank God I chose to study chose textbook for my oral exam.
Paul Orcutt MD FACEP
December 15, 2019
John C JohnsonThanks for the wonderful biography of a legend in EM. Peter was on the ABEM Board and as such could not take the exam until he had been off for I believe 5 or 10 years. When he got around to taking the oral, as was the practice – all oral examiners had the ability to cross off candidates that they felt they had a conflict of interest. With Peter’s cantankerous reputation, NO ONE, wanted to be his examiner. I knew him, of course. Ben Munger CEO of ABEM, came to me the first day of the exam and told me I HAD to test Peter in the double scenario. I reluctantly agreed. When Peter came into my room, I felt like standing and saluting. (think George Patton to imagine the moment) One of the scenarios involved a pancreatitis and one of the critical points was to order an amylase. He did a perfect exam and ordered his KUB and lab, but did not mention amylase. Now what do I do. “Is there anything else you would like, Dr. Rosen” No thanks was the answer. When it later came time to reveal his x-ray and lab results, the amylase was on a separate page which I withheld. He asked – “where’s my amylase” – you didn’t order one my answer – “you caught that, eh ? I would like to order one now” – shortly he got his result. Catastrophe avoided – I would have had to fail Peter Rosen.
December 29, 2019
Donna HelgrenI was fortunate that a large portion of my nursing career was practiced in the ER of DGH. Dr. Rosen was a striking influence during those years. He promoted a team approach to provide the best care possible to all of the patients at every level of need.
February 6, 2020
Frank A MooreRIP.
We will carry on the fight in your honor.
February 8, 2020
Chris Hinson MDI had the chance to meet Dr. Rosen as a resident while at Cook County Hospital in Chicago while working with another Giant in medicine Dr. Quentin Young. He was indeed an impressive Humanitarian and dedicated to the proposition that Emergency physicians must be the best specialist outside of every other specialty and know every other specialty to a degree sufficient to do their job if necessary.
October 5, 2020
Marzieh Fathi“AS A WOMAN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY, YOU SHOULD BE STUBBORN”.
I will never fotget your advice…dear Peter.
March 29, 2022
Terrence L. Jones MDAloha ‘Oe Peter,
Your guidance and influence have spread your mindset across the Emergency Medicine landscape, and it has been well appreciated. Mahalo my friend and mentor. You will be sorely missed, as well as Chinese food after the evening shift!
November 2, 2022
Rick PostOne of my life’s profound moments was when Dr Rosen pronounced an individual dead.
My dance studio was having a party at the Brown Palace hotel and when I walked into the hotel all my students were not in the restaurant they were in the hotel lobby. I was told an elderly man collapsed while dancing. Thinking it was one of my students I rushed to find it wasn’t one of my students, but this unknown woman grieving over her husband being worked on by EMTs. I volunteered to assist by driving her to the Denver General Hospital Emergency room, she was not in a condition to drive.
After 2 or 3 hrs Dr Rosen told this lady he did everything he could to save her husband’s life, but was unable to succeed.
I never experienced anything like this before. Speaking to this woman the way he did was so full of compassion and honesty that I will never forget this short conversation.
Dr Rosen left a memory with me that I’ll never forget.