AMAV VICDOC SUMMER 2023 - Magazine - Page 73
~ Associate Professor Joseph Epstein ~
Emergency physician, surgeon, College president,
academic mentor, agent provocateur, philosopher,
politician, photographic historian and raconteur.
F
—
ew people have had such a varied and
inspiring professional career as Joseph
Epstein. Joe was a surgeon, emergency
physician, one of the founding fathers of the
Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (also
later serving as its President), founding signatory
of the International Federation for Emergency
Medicine, director of the State Retrieval Service in
Victoria and advisor to ministers and governments. In
addition, he was an enthusiastic and generous teacher,
wise mentor, inspirational leader, trusted advisor, force
of nature, radical, philosopher and raconteur.
Born and raised in Melbourne of Jewish immigrant
parents who narrowly escaped Poland before the war,
Joe was intent on making the world a better place. He
initially trained as a surgeon, where he observed the
shortfalls of consultant-based medicine, and he used
this knowledge to focus on the development of the
new specialty of Emergency Medicine.
Joe described Emergency Medicine as a Janusfaced specialty, with one face towards the community
and the other towards hospital-based healthcare.
He was fascinated by its complex challenges and
spent much of his professional life exploring them.
In particular, he saw the opportunities to improve
healthcare that working at this crossroads of the
health system provided.
It may be hard to believe but within living memory,
care in what was then called ‘casualty’ was delivered
(for the most part) by junior doctors, with little
training, experience or supervision. Despite their
best efforts, the term ‘casualty’ became associated
with second rate medical care. Joe and a small band
of like-minded doctors in Australasia decided to
change that. The path to establishing a specialist
college for emergency medicine in Australasia was
difficult, but successful. It was not just about training
a specialist workforce for emergency departments. It
was also about standard setting, monitoring quality
and performance, advocating for system change and
being a voice for the vulnerable. The older, established
medical colleges were not supportive and found
the idea of a new specialty threatening. However,
the public and governments demanded safe and
effective care for emergencies. This could only be
delivered through a specialty college and the College
finally gained recognition by the medical councils of
Australia and New Zealand in 1992.
The College that we see today owes a lot to Joe’s
vision, energy and persistence. Fittingly, Joe was
honoured at the recent International Conference
on Emergency Medicine held in Melbourne where
delegates from around the world acknowledged his
contribution to improving care for emergency
patients everywhere.
The College that
we see today owes
a lot to Joe’s
vision, energy
and persistence
––
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