Joseph Darin Education Fund
It's hard to overestimate just how many people might owe their lives to Joseph Darin's work.
The group includes anyone who has required local paramedic care, visited an emergency room or taken an unexpected ride in a Flight for Life helicopter.
Darin is considered the founder of the Milwaukee County paramedic program, which officially began in 1973.
"Then in 1978, he established one of the first emergency medicine residency programs in the U.S.," said Stephen W. Hargarten, professor and chairman of the emergency medicine program at the Medical College of Wisconsin, who succeeded Darin as chairman.
Darin was an early advocate for 911 emergency service. He pushed for the development of the Flight for Life program, the first of its kind in the state. In 1984, he helped develop the Level 1 trauma center at the old John L. Doyne Hospital, now Froedtert Hospital, the only such center in the state until the past year.
"He truly transformed the field," Hargarten said. "He set things in place, from the street - the point where the accident occurred - to get that person to the right place and the right people."
Darin himself said he was most proud of the emergency medicine residency program, something that was then considered a radical idea among other and sometimes-competitive specialties.
The biggest advances in the field have come from "men and women who are residency-trained, board-certified and proud to say 'I am an emergency medicine physician,' " he said in an article on a Medical College Web site. "Now, they are well-respected."
As you well know, the future of emergency care is in jeopardy on a national scale. A recent report issued from the Institute of Medicine recommends a dramatic increase in funding for emergency care. We have taken that proposal one step further and through the Darin Fund are currently strengthening areas of training and education for future emergency care physicians. As you may be aware, one of Dr. Darin's greatest interests was ensuring outstanding education for residents in emergency medicine.
With the endorsement of the Darin Family, we have established an educational endowment fund named the Darin Fund, from which proceeds help to fund the restructuring of the education curriculum at the Medical College to include more interactive conferences, access to simulators and allow faculty more time for teaching.
Through innovative teaching and research, we are attracting top students and impacting the next generation of emergency physicians. Our goal with this initiative is to gain a national presence in Emergency Medicine education.
To donate, please click here. Reference Darin Fund in your donation.