| I was born and raised here in San Francisco, where my immediate
family all still reside. I left California to go to boarding school
at Andover in ninth grade, and stayed in the Northeast to attend
Hamilton College. My college had a program of early admission to
Dartmouth Medical School and since I had greatly enjoyed my time
in the Northeast, I decided to stay in New England for medical school.
The only catch for this early admission process was that I had to
strictly embrace a liberal arts philosophy through college. Thus,
I became a Classics major, studying Latin and ancient history, and
lived in Rome for six months during my third year of college. I
also was a Marine Biology minor, and lived in the Caribbean for
the other six months. The final part of my proposal for admission
to Dartmouth was that I spend a year teaching before attending medical
school. I came back to California, and lived in the redwoods outside
of La Honda (near Woodside), and I taught fifth and sixth graders
as a naturalist for the San Mateo Outdoor Education School.
During medical school at Dartmouth, I got hooked on emergency medicine.
I actually liked most things I was exposed to during my clinical
rotations, but without question, my enthusiasm spiked every time
I was instructed to go to the emergency department to evaluate a
patient. This addiction had me looking back west again for residency,
as many of the most sought-after programs at that time were in Calfornia.
I chose to train at Highland Hospital in Oakland (the Alameda County
Medical Center). This East Bay ‘knife and gun club’
provided a wonderful clinical exposure to my chosen field, and living
in the Bay Area again after a long absence had me feeling like I
was at home again. My final career choice also became clear at Highland,
and that was to become an academician. I greatly enjoyed all aspects
of academic life, from the teaching, to the research, and even to
administration. I became chief resident during my final year, and
also starting teaching at UCSF through the Foundations of Patient
Care course.
Since joining the faculty at UCSF in 2001, I’ve been involved
in a number of activities outside of my clinical practice in the
Parnassus emergency department. I am the director of disaster preparedness
for our department. I also am the director for the emergency ultrasound
program, a program in which our faculty are trained to use ultrasound
in a focused manner to answer specific questions pertinent to emergency
physicians. I am involved in outcomes research related to the use
of ultrasound by emergency physicians. And finally, I continue to
teach as a small group leader for the Foundations of Patient Care
course so I can stay in touch with the medical students. Keeping
track of the changes in medicine and medical education through the
eyes of students is tremendously refreshing, and helps me to continue
to grow as a physician.
Outside of medicine I have another entire life believe it or not.
I’m married to Wendy Cole, who is also an emergency physician.
We have three young kids and two dogs. Although much of my time
outside the hospital currently involves diaper changing and soothing
crying children (which I wouldn’t trade for the world), I
like to pretend I still have a large number of hobbies ranging from
skiing, mountaineering, and biking, to reading, home remodeling,
and watching movies.
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