Robert S. Hockberger, MD, Los Angeles County-Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

Moderated by: Vytas Karalius, MD, MPH, MA, Northwestern Medicine 
What you’ll learn from Dr. Hockberger:

• You have spent 25 years working as a Chair of department and through that time have enjoyed many academic achievements, a past president of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine and past president of the American Board of Emergency Medicine. You have served in a multitude of committees and chair of the Emergency Medicine Model Review Task Force. You have authored or co-authored more than 80 publications and serves as a senior editor for Rosen’s.
•  With all this experience and watching Emergency Medicine grow from its infancy, what in our specialty and its journey makes you the most pleased or proud?
• What was your proudest moment as an Emergency Medicine Chair and now Chair-Emeritus?
• We find ourselves in unprecedented times for Emergency Medicine with the advent of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Emergency physicians and leaders within emergency medicine have been challenged like never before. As a pioneer of emergency medicine who has had a hand in navigating emergency medicine in its infancy, what advice would you give to leaders in emergency medicine in navigating this trial, but also growing as a specialty in spite of the pandemic?
• Going a little further into crisis leadership, I know you have worked as a member of a task force dealing with another public health crisis; the HIV/AIDs epidemic as well as serving as Chair during the beginning of the opioid crisis. Can you discuss with us the lessons you learned from this experience and how we can apply those lessens to our current crisis, especially in terms of leadership?
• Shifting away from COVID, you have served on many academically diverse committees with multitude of different objectives. In my own experience, there seems to be a drive for residents and junior faculty to discover a niche in emergency medicine. Since you have had a broad experience in different aspects of emergency medicine, would you agree that junior faculty should develop a niche or should they take on other roles to perhaps diversify their experiences?
• Any other words for our future leaders in emergency medicine?
• What advice would you provide to residents and perhaps junior faculty as they start their new career as academic or practicing emergency physicians? How can a young resident take steps to become a “Hero of emergency medicine” in his or her career?
• As Emergency Medicine continues to grow, where do you hope to see our specialty in the next 5-10 years?
• Do you have any other advice or wisdom for our listeners or closing thoughts?