Dr. Marvin Wayne |
Diverse interests. Varied activities. Lots of irons in the fire. These are apt descriptions of the life of long-time EMF donor Marvin Wayne, MD. But he points out that EMF’s single-minded focus is one of the main foundation’s best assets, and one of the reasons he contributes. “EMF is focused just on emergency medicine—it’s not serving 20 other fields, like disaster relief and providing health services,” Wayne notes. “EMF’s support of research gives emergency medicine an important seat in the world of medical research.”
Wayne’s own interests cover the waterfront (and in fact, windsurfing and scuba diving are among them): He has authored three cookbooks. He plays left wing on a community ice hockey team called the Outlaws. He runs the Institute for Emergency Medical Education, a nonprofit organization that he established in 1977. He founded and operated a cookie company called Dr. Cookie. He lectures nationally and internationally and has contributed to the development of emergency medicine in China, Hungary, Romania, and the Czech Republic. Most recently, he’s producing a movie.
These multiple interests are in addition to Wayne’s day job. For the last 35 years Wayne has been the EMS medical director for the city of Bellingham and Whatcom County in Washington, and an attending physician in the emergency department at St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham.
Originally trained in surgery, Wayne was a decorated combat surgeon in Vietnam. After practicing surgery for a few years back home, he says he began to question whether this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He left the field of surgery to enter emergency medicine in its early days in the mid-1970s.
Emergency medicine proved to be a satisfying niche for Wayne. “We don’t have selectivity in the people we care for—the best and the worst are dumped into our pot,” he notes. He finds that EMF’s mission “reflects the dedication of what we’re here for—taking care of the sick and injured at their most vulnerable times.”
For more information, contact Holly Hull Miori, EMF Administrator, at 800/798-1822, ext. 3216, or hmiori@emfoundation.org.