Mission Magazine - AAEM appoints Dr. Lex as education committee chair

AAEM appoints Dr. Lex as education committee chair

August 2002

Joe Lex, M.D., thinks the Health Science Center took a chance when it accepted him into the School of Medicine. "My academic credentials were non-traditional," Dr. Lex said. "But I had experience as a combat medic, an emergency technician and an emergency nurse."

His experience, years of intense training and a genuine love of medicine paid off. The man with the unorthodox route to medical school was recently appointed as the education chair of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM).

The national organization promotes equal access to quality emergency care provided by emergency room specialists. As the AAEM education chair, Dr. Lex will coordinate the AAEM annual Scientific Assembly, as well as its oral and written board review courses. The committee also is developing evidence-based guidelines for cardiac and trauma emergencies.

"It is apparently very unusual for a national organization to give an educational leadership position to someone from a non-academic setting," Dr. Lex said. "Because I am not bound by traditional academic ideas, I have been allowed to try some atypical educational techniques which seem successful."

In addition to his work with the AAEM, Dr. Lex is a full-time clinician at Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill Hospital and is actively involved in developing board review courses for the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

The 1986 graduate is an accomplished speaker, a published author and a memorable character in Health Science Center history. "I served as class president for three-and-a-half years and can say the Class of 1986 left its mark on the school - with computerized question banks, coffee service and mailbox pigeonholes," Dr. Lex said. Today he continues to leave his mark on the thousands of patients he treats, and loves to care for, in Philadelphia.