Joseph F. Clark, Ph.D.

An interesting paradox has arisen. An email came through my website that commented on “My Ambulance Education” and referred to it as my first professional writing. That comment, while kind in its intention, gave me pause for thought. I actually do consider myself a professional writer and did so before this. My job as a [...]

I was recently asked to write a 100 word memorial to be read at a memorial service to be held by the University of Cincinnati. The University has a very considerate tradition of having a memorial on the Tuesday after Memorial Day to honor all those in and associated with the University who have passed [...]

I intentionally avoid this discussion of how or when I knew that being a scientist was right for me. The reason is because the answer, while truthful and kind of humorous, is not the stuff of learned scientific careers. In fact some might call it somewhat nefarious. I was always interested in science, medicine biology [...]

As most people who read my blog and My Ambulance Education, I am heavily committed to the education of all individuals at many levels of academia as well as science and medicine. Currently I am a Professor of Neurology in the University of Cincinnati. It has been my privilege to work and learn in the [...]

Let me say up front, this may be the most contentious blog I’ve written. So, beware. The definition of an orphan drug is that the market for said drug is less than 200,000 patients. This number of patients is considered to be not sufficient to be financially successful for drug companies to develop drugs. Orphan [...]

So here is some math that I find very humorous. The NIH announced two months ago their challenge grants in support of the stimulus package, also known as ARRA. In the challenge grants it was announced that 200 grants would be awarded 1 million dollars each. That is the amount of the stimulus package for [...]

There are people who proclaim themselves as experts. But how does one become a perceived an expert? Having a lot of information on a subject does not make an expert. A text book has a lot of knowledge but that text book will not answer a question without someone looking in it and it needs [...]

When I worked on the ambulance I was doing that to ‘help people’ and my goal in my career over 20 years later is still to ‘help people.’ On the ambulance and when I worked in the Emergency room I was helping people one person at a time. That was rewarding, frustrating and hard work, [...]

The National Institutes of Health fund about 40,000 grants to do medical research. Of those funded projects only 14 have to do with medical research in the pre-hospital setting. This is just sad. Over 50% of all medical emergencies that come to hospitals arrive via the ambulance. Paramedics, firefighters, EMTs, Police and a host of [...]