
Varied Career
From LA County, Dr. Clarke’s career has carried him through a variety of positions all throughout the country. After residency, he stayed in Orange County, Calif., for a few years working as an emergency physician. Dr. Clarke was then hired as assistant director in the emergency department (ED) at Pomona Valley Hospital, Pomona, Calif. A cross-country move brought him to Delaware, where he served as the director of a hospital ED in Milford, Del. After several more years, he was again recruited away to be director of an ED in Peoria, Ill.
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ACEP Now: Vol 44 – No 01 – January 2025
Medical anti-shock trousers (MAST) being applied for a trauma patient and a Datascope cardiac monitor in use during traumatic full arrest. From 1978 to 1980 MAST suits were used in most trauma patients. (Click to enlarge.)
“I thought I was going to retire, but it didn’t suit me, so I joined an ED group as a ‘traveling physician,’ where I was also their photographer,” Dr. Clarke said. “After about eight or nine years of traveling to various EDs for the group, I decided to come home from being a ‘traveling physician’ and I took a position at Hopedale Medical Complex, where I have been for the last six years.”
Throughout his experience and across these many locations, Dr. Clarke said that much about emergency medicine has changed, but a lot has stayed the same. A typical shift when he was starting out would include patients falling into what was coded as “1350” major medical/trauma, “1060” minor medical/trauma, or “1050” medical walk-in.
“At that time, the senior residents were always in 1350, versus the second-year residents who would be in 1060 or 1050,” Dr. Clarke said. “Many of the cases we saw then—car accidents, gunshot wounds, stabbing, D and Cs—are the same as we see today, but the way the cases are handled is different.”
Today, a patient comes in and the emergency physician may do the airway, but a trauma surgeon does the surgery. In comparison, early in his training, Dr. Clarke said each physician did it all.

ED resident Dr. Steve Hui doing a pericardiocentesis on a trauma patient. Notice the use of the medical anti-shock trousers and the ECG machine. (Click to enlarge.)
Evolution
Many technological and economic changes have also come to the ED.
“When I started, if a patient came in with right lower quadrant pain, we would talk to them and think ‘appendicitis,’ without having any way to confirm it except by history, labs, and physical exam,” Dr. Clarke said. “Now, we have ultrasound or CT scans to confirm.”
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2 Responses to “Dr. Elsburgh Clarke Was Among First to Specialize in Emergency Medicine”
January 16, 2025
Charles Boursier, MDElsburgh continues to be a remarkable man, excellent photographer and hard working physician, putting in the hours few much younger would be willing to do. He continues to be a fine doctor and compassionate patient advocate.
February 2, 2025
Neil Shocket MDI was a fellow resident with Elsburgh back when we started at LAC/USC in 1980. Technology has come a long way since those early years when we used to do our own basic tests in the tiny lab in the back behind C booth. I’m still Board Certified.
After a long and satisfying career as an Emergency Physician, I now teach the “introduction to clinical medicine” course to new medical students at Keck School of Medicine at USC.
The old hospital is now a historical landmark and kept in its original condition although no longer used to treat acute patients. As a special treat I take my students on a private tour of the old ER. You can definitely still feel the ghosts of patients and staff members roaming the halls.