Most people bring value to a community through their work and their ideas. It is the rare person who brings value by giving us a new perspective. This post is from such a person. Dr. Felix Ankel is Vice President, Health Professions Education at HealthPartners Institute and Assistant Dean at University of Minnesota Medical School. He has been a leader within the EM Education community through his national involvement and leadership in FOAMed. More than his accomplishments, he is best known for contributing to the EM education community as the resident philosopher and for his ability to bring a different perspective to any conversation. Hopefully this post will give you a taste of what we have all gained from him over the years.

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“Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.”

Dr. Jim Adams is a Professor of Emergency Medicine (EM) and both the Chair of the Department of EM at Northwestern University and Senior Vice President/Chief Medical Officer for Northwestern Memorial Health Care. Although he is internationally recognized for his contributions to areas of ethics and leadership in EM, for myself and many others, he is best known as a mentor and an inspiration. To spend time with him is to walk away ready to take on the world. We appreciate the opportunity to share his book recommendations.

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“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

As colleagues in Emergency Medicine (EM) and education we can trace both our roots and see our branches. For many of us, including the bloggers, podcasters, mythbusters, and the skeptics can trace our journey back to Dr. Jerry Hoffman. Dr. Hoffman is internationally known as one of the founders of EM, the lead author of the NEXUS study, one of the hosts of EM abstracts, and the original EM skeptic. It is our distinct pleasure to have Dr. Hoffman contribute to this ALiEM bookclub series.

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In the way that we can be inspired and changed by the actions of others, we can be inspired and changed by the books we read. In this series, ALiEM Bookclub: Beyond the ED, we hope to introduce you to a selection of books as seen through our guests’ eyes.

Our first guest is Dr. Lewis Goldfrank, Chair of Emergency Medicine at NYU – Bellevue. He is well known as one of the founders of both Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology. In addition to his accomplishments within Emergency Medicine, for many he is best known as the spiritual leader of the humanistic mission of Emergency Medicine. We are excited to have him as our inaugural post of this new series.

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“Choice is how we go from who we are today to who we want to be tomorrow.”

Most people likely do not know Sheena Iyengar. However it is likely that you know about her famed “jam study.” In this study she had a tasting table at a grocery store with either 24 varieties of jam, 6 varieties, or only gourmet jam. Although the larger display was able to attract more customers, the customers from the smaller selection were 10 times more likely to purchase jam. This study stood in contrast to the assumption of retailers that more choice is better.

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