Marc Eckstein, MD, MPH, FACEP is the Medical Director of the Los Angeles Fire Department, which is the nation's second busiest EMS provider. Dr. Eckstein is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, and the Director of Prehospital Care at the Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center. A former New York City paramedic, Dr. Eckstein is a nationally recognized leader with 25 years experience in EMS.
After obtaining his Bachelor of Science Degree with distinction with a major in microbiology from Cornell University in 1985, Dr. Eckstein obtained his Doctor of Medicine from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York in 1989. He completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at the Los Angeles County/University of Southern California School of Medicine Medical Center in 1993, after serving as Chief Resident during his fourth year of training.
Dr. Eckstein then became the Director of Prehospital Care at LAC/USC Medical Center in 1993 He became the Medical Director of the Los Angeles Fire Department in 1996, and was promoted to the rank of Professor of Emergency Medicine and Clinical Scholar at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in 2009.
As the Medical Director of the LAFD, Dr. Eckstein has introduced several new modalities in the field, including transcutaneous pacing, 12 lead ECGs, pulse oximetry, and waveform capnography. He has led the efforts which culminated in the successful creation of STEMI-Receiving Centers (SRCs) in Los Angeles, which now includes over 30 hospitals where patients with acute myocardial infarctions are diverted for emergency cardiac catheterization. This system has set the model for acute cardiac care nationwide.
Dr. Eckstein is the Co-Principal Investigator for the Los Angeles Prehospital Stroke Screen study, which was incorporated into the 2000 American Heart Association Guidelines, and the Field Administration of Magnesium for Stroke (FAST-MAG) study, which is a multi-million dollar, multi-center, NIH funded prehospital stroke trial. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, abstracts, and book chapters, and lectures around the world on EMS and disaster preparedness topics. He received his Masters in Public Health degree with a concentration in homeland security in 2007.