11/13/2019
It is with great sadness that the DEM mourns the passing of Peter Rosen, MD, UC San Diego Professor Emeritus. Dr. Rosen was one of the founding fathers of our specialty, playing instrumental roles in the establishment of our profession in the House of Medicine, as well as the development of Emergency Medicine training programs throughout the country. Here at UC San Diego, he served as Program Director and Director of Education during the early years of our residency program in the 1990s, providing immediate credibility, visibility, and recognition for our nascent program.
Dr. Rosen began his career in the military, serving 3 years in the US Army Medical Corp in Germany as a general surgeon after having completed residency training at Highland Hospital in Oakland, California, and his medical degree at Washington University in St. Louis. He then went on to private practice as a surgeon in the midwest but found his true calling in caring for patients in the ED. In the early 1970s, he was appointed the ED Director at the University of Chicago, and quickly established one of the first EM training programs in the country. He went on to do the same at Denver General, before being recruited to UCSD in 1989.
At UCSD, Dr. Rosen had a tremendous impact on our program and graduates – mentoring, advising, and guiding the professional careers and the lives of many. During his tenure at UCSD, Peter was one of the first Emergency physicians ever elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine), the highest honor for an academic physician in this country. Peter authored literally hundreds of publications, serving as the founding Editor of the Journal of Emergency Medicine, and in 1983 launched the revolutionary text Emergency Medicine – Concepts and Clinical Practice, one of the seminal treatises of our specialty (now in its 9th edition and aptly renamed “Rosen’s Emergency Medicine – Concepts and Clinical Practice”).
For those of us who were fortunate enough to know him, Peter will always be remembered for his gruff yet warm personality, outspokenness and humor (occasionally cringe-inducing), and truly caring mentorship and friendship. Peter is survived by his wife and partner of many decades, Ann, as well as four sons and four grandchildren.
