Joseph S. Esherick, MD, FAAFP,is the Associate Director of Medicine and the Medical ICU Director at the Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura, California. He is also an Associate Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He received his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, and completed a family practice residency at the Ventura County Medical Center, Ventura, California. He is board certified in family medicine and the author of the Tarascon Primary Care Pocketbook and the Tarascon Hospital Medicine Pocketbook. He is one of the lead instructors of the Hospitalist and Emergency Procedures Courses for Hospital Procedures Consultants. He is also an editorial board member for Tarascon Publishing and for Elsevier’s First Consult.