(2-Volume Set) Rosen’s Emergency Medicine – Concepts and Clinical Practice : Expert Consult Premium Edition – Enhanced Online Features and Print, 8e

Book Preface

With heavy hearts, we commend to you the eighth edition of this comprehensive resource for the biology and practice of the specialty of emergency medicine. We are fortunate to have had the benefit of working with not one, but two iconic editors in chief.

This edition marks the final stage in the evolution of John Marx’s vision of a highly authoritative and pithy, timely and timeless, clinical reference for all students, devotees, and practitioners of this most honorable of the medical specialties. This edition builds on the great success of the seventh edition, with further refinement of our chapter formatting, prose, and citations. We worked diligently to balance appropriate citation support for the material presented against the prospect of a bewildering sea of references, seeking always to reduce redundancy, while providing timely and authoritative background.

Recommendations are based on the best evidence available and, in the absence of clear scientific support for a single course of action, on the collective experience and judgment of our authors and editors. This edition is more richly illustrated than any before it, both to enhance readability and to improve our effectiveness in conveying key information in the best possible format. Emergency medicine is increasingly a procedure-based specialty, but we continue to leave the detailed description of procedures to other works, focusing instead on the substantial basis of knowledge, experience, and reasoning that is necessary to achieve the highest possible levels of clinical performance. We have updated and enriched the Continuing Medical Education questions that relate to each chapter, to assist the reader both in learning and in meeting regulatory requirements. We have provided, and will continue to provide online updates, between editions, recognizing that new information flows without regard to publishing schedules, continuously complementing the comprehensive base we have provided.

A book, in the beginning, middle, and end, is about the people  who make it happen. We are deeply indebted to our authors and to our editors, whose names you see on the cover and title page. We bid a fond farewell, with endless gratitude, to Jim Adams and Bill Barsan, editors of extraordinary talent who departed after the seventh edition, finally succumbing to the overwhelming demands for their time and talents. We were fortunate to recruit Brian Zink and Andy Jagoda to our cause, and it was clear within weeks that we had made the right choice, with each taking the reins as if seasoned by multiple prior editions. Our other editors, veterans all, embraced their new colleagues, and we had an extraordinary unity of purpose as we moved relentlessly toward our shared vision. We are grateful also to our skilled, patient, and brilliant publishing team at Elsevier: Judy Fletcher, our global content development director; Stefanie Jewell-Thomas, our senior content strategist; and Deidre (Dee) Simpson, our senior content development specialist. Their expertise, creativity, and dedication contribute much to the book, allowing us to develop and share its rich
content. We are grateful, also, to Dr. Barry Brenner and Dr. Michael Richardson, each of whom meticulously read the entire seventh edition, providing literally dozens of suggestions for improvement, which we have incorporated into edition eight. On behalf of John, we thank Tricia Wyatt, his dedicated, long-serving assistant, whose heart we know aches as do our own. We also thank Diane Pugh and Janice Bingham (RMW) and Maria Figueroa (RSH), for without their extraordinary organizational talent and attention to detail, we would most certainly be lost. Finally, we have to thank, one final time, our beloved John, with the sadness that this is our final project together, but with the joy of having shared so much, for so long.

Ron M. Walls, MD
Robert S. Hockberger, MD
2012