Francis Miller Fesmire (November 16, 1959 – January 31, 2014) was an American

emergency physician An emergency physician (often called an "ER doctor" in the United States) is a physician who works at an emergency department to care for ill patients. The emergency physician is a specialist in advanced cardiac life support (advanced life suppor ...

and a nationally recognized expert in

myocardial infarction A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may ...

. He authored numerous academic articles and assisted in the development of clinical guidelines on the

standard of care In tort law, the standard of care is the only degree of prudence and caution required of an individual who is under a duty of care. The requirements of the standard are closely dependent on circumstances. Whether the standard of care has been b ...

in treating patients with suspected myocardial infarction by the

American College of Emergency Physicians The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is a professional organization of emergency medicine physicians in the United States. The organization was founded August 16, 1968, by eight physicians in Lansing, Michigan. ACEP established t ...

and the American Heart Association/

American College of Cardiology The American College of Cardiology (ACC), based in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit medical association established in 1949. It bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet its qualifications. Education is a core component of the ...

. He performed numerous research investigations in chest pain patients, reporting the usefulness of continuous 12-lead

ECG Electrocardiography is the process of producing an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), a recording of the heart's electrical activity. It is an electrogram of the heart which is a graph of voltage versus time of the electrical activity of the hear ...

monitoring, two-hour delta

cardiac marker Cardiac markers are biomarkers measured to evaluate heart function. They can be useful in the early prediction or diagnosis of disease. Although they are often discussed in the context of myocardial infarction, other conditions can lead to an elev ...

testing, and nuclear cardiac stress testing in the emergency department. The culmination of his studies was The Erlanger Chest Pain Evaluation Protocol published in the ''

Annals of Emergency Medicine The ''Annals of Emergency Medicine'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of emergency medicine care. It is the official journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and is published on their behalf by ...

'' in 2002. In 2011 he published a novel ''Nashville Skyline'' that received a 5 star review by ForeWord Reviews. His most recent research involved the risk stratification of chest pain patients in the emergency department.

Background

Born in 1959 in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia, Fesmire grew up in

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020 ...

and graduated high school Valedictorian from the

Baylor School Baylor School, commonly called Baylor, is a private, coeducational college-preparatory school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Founded in 1893, the school currently sits atop a 690-acre campus and enrolls students in grades 6-12, including boarding ...

in 1978. He graduated ''Magna Cum Laude'' from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

in 1981. Fesmire graduated from

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Vanderbilt University School of Medicine is a graduate medical school of Vanderbilt University located in Nashville, Tennessee. Located in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center on the southeastern side of the Vanderbilt University campus, the ...

in 1985 and completed a

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgra ...

in Emergency Medicine at

University Hospital A university hospital is an institution which combines the services of a hospital with the education of medical students and with medical research. These hospitals are typically affiliated with a medical school or university. The following i ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

in 1988 where he received the Outstanding Resident Award. In 1992 Fesmire was elected as a Fellow of American College of Emergency Physicians. He practiced as an emergency physician at Chattanooga Memorial Hospital from 1988 until 1991 and had been practicing at Erlanger Baroness Hospital from 1991 until his death in 2014.

Awards

Fesmire received the Emergency Medicine Foundation's Young Investigator Award in 1996 for his work in developing a rapid protocol for the evaluation of chest pain patients. In 2006, he received the

Ig Nobel Prize The Ig Nobel Prize ( ) is a satiric prize awarded annually since 1991 to celebrate ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. Its aim is to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The name o ...

in Medicine for a 1988 case report detailing the use of digital rectal massage as a cure for persistent singultus (

hiccups A hiccup (scientific name ''singultus'', from a Latin word meaning "to catch one's breath while sobbing"; also spelled hiccough) is an involuntary contraction ( myoclonic jerk) of the diaphragm that may repeat several times per minute. The hi ...

). In 2008, Dr Fesmire was named a Hero of Emergency Medicine by the American College of Emergency Physicians. He later on told New Scientist in an interview that he found a "treatment sure to be more popular with hiccup patients. "An orgasm results in incredible stimulation of the vagus nerve. From now on, I will be recommending sex – culminating with orgasm – as the cure-all for intractable hiccups"."

Later work

At the time of his death, Fesmire lived in Chattanooga with his wife and two sons. He was Medical Director of Chest Pain Center of Erlanger Medical Center. He was also Professor and Clinical Research Director of the Emergency Medicine Residency Program of the

University of Tennessee College of Medicine The University of Tennessee College of Medicine is one of six graduate schools of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) in downtown Memphis. The oldest public medical school in Tennessee, the UT College of Medicine is a LCME-a ...

and Chairman of the Clinical Policy Committee of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fesmire, Francis 1959 births 2014 deaths People from Atlanta Harvard College alumni Vanderbilt University School of Medicine alumni American emergency physicians American hospital administrators