Dr. David Goldschmitt is an emergency physician with 25 years of experience. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology at Bowdoin College. He attained his master's training at the University of Chicago in medical sociology and health care administration. He pursued his medical training at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School (UMDNJ-NJMS) in Newark, NJ. At that institution, he acquired valuable experience in inner city medicine and trauma. This experience influenced his decision to pursue emergency medicine as a career and propelled him to his emergency medicine residency at Metropolitan Hospital in Spanish Harlem, New York City.
After achieving board certification in emergency medicine in 1990, he remained as the assistant director of the Emergency Department and residency program until 1996, training residents in the practice of emergency medicine. In 1996, he joined the Emergency Department at New York University Downtown Hospital in lower Manhattan, where he became chief of emergency.
In that position in 2001, he faced the devastation of September 11, with the closest emergency department to the Twin Towers, just four blocks away. The emergency department received over 1,200 casualties in three hours and set up the triage center at 1 Liberty Plaza, across the street from the World Trade Center. In the aftermath of the tragedy, he set about to change the practice of emergency medicine for disasters, rebuilding the Emergency Department of NYU Downtown to accommodate mass casualty events, creating the first mass decontamination unit for practical application in a moderate sized hospital setting.
He is the author of the book Medical Disaster Response: A survival guide to hospitals in mass casualty events. He is a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians as well as the Disaster Medicine Subcommittee. He has valuable experience in lobbying Washington on disaster medicine issues and funding. He has lectured to national and international organizations (Canada, Israel) on disaster response. He continues to practice full time as a clinical emergency physician.
