David Epstein, Md, Ms, Faap Email & Phone Number

Much of my career has focused on caring for the most critically ill children, as a pediatric intensivist, in academic, quaternary care hospitals. However, in 2015, I had the opportunity to bring my expertise in pediatric critical care to the front lines of primary care as my wife and I built our own pediatric urgent care, MVP Pediatric and Urgent Care. It brought me much satisfaction to serve not only the children and families of my community in providing pediatric urgent care but also collaborating with my fellow community pediatricians to provide continuity of their patients' care. My experience working in two very different worlds made me a better overall physician and gave me a different perspective on the medical care systems of each. When our urgent care was acquired by PM Pediatrics in 2021, I had the opportunity to transition back into pediatric critical care medicine. I spent the following 2 years working mostly per diem in the pediatric urgent care and pediatric critical care arenas. However, in 2023, I decided to settle back into pediatric critical care full-time and took a position at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s as the director of pediatric and congenital cardiac intensive care.During my journey, I have also learned the importance of educating our community's families and the problems that misinformation in healthcare can cause. Not understanding the real limitations of CPR and the concept of medical futility in the pediatric ICU or vaccine hesitancy and medical non-compliance in the prevention and management of treatable medical conditions in the outpatient setting are examples of the wide breadth of medical issues that are compromised by misunderstanding healthcare and fueled by misinformation. Realizing that information comes from many different unfiltered sources, I have sought out mediums where I could provide support and convey accurate medical information. I have found further teaching success in creating a blog and podcast, advocating on various social media platforms, and organizing community support Zoom sessions for families in a question/answer format. I have really found it enjoyable and gratifying to educate at this "grassroots" level. As a physician aspiring to provide both impactful and excellent clinical care and education, I have found the motivation to try and make a difference in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr, "If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way." This moves me closer to my overall objective in life, which is to leave this world a little better than when I found it.

Listed skills include Pediatrics, Healthcare, Medicine, Hospitals, and 28 others.