Faculty Spotlight: Stephan Stapczynski, MD

Tintinalli’s Emergency Medicine, the most widely used textbook and reference of Emergency Medicine, is a labor of love for Stephan Stapczynski, MD. He’s been involved in writing and editing the popular book for more than 30 years and seven editions. The latest edition was published in October 2015.

Dr. Stapczynski’s hands are full not only revising and editing chapters of the 2,200-page book, but also as a professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.

Along with teaching and editing, Dr. Stapczynski is a scholarly project advisor at the College of Medicine and an attending physician at
Maricopa Emergency Medicine Residency. His diversity in work experiences is something he encourages current and future medical students to have.

“If you want to have a long career in medicine, you have to find variety in what you do,” he said. “This textbook is part of the variety that I discovered.”

Tintinalli’s Emergency Medicine was first published in 1980 by Judith Tintinalli, MD, at a time when Emergency Medicine was a new field. Dr. Stapczynski was asked to write for the second edition of the textbook by the chairman of his Emergency Medicine Department at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA. In 1984, McGraw-Hill published the second edition, which was the beginning of Dr. Stapczynski’s work as a writer and editor.

“I like taking the complex or difficult to understand and figuring out ways to explain it in a simpler fashion,” he said. “It has given me an increased body of knowledge, but also given me practice on how to explain things, which helps me when I’m teaching.”

As an editor, Dr. Stapczynski researches the latest practices in Emergency Medicine, then updates the book’s online version, which is continuously revised as new, more relevant information is released.

“I really enjoy working on the book,” Dr. Stapczynski said. “I learn from doing it. I enjoy reading new material, integrating different approaches, coming up with an approach and explaining complex concepts.”

The seventh edition of the textbook received the British Medical Association “Best Surgery Textbook of the Year” and was translated to eight languages, including Turkish, Mandarin and Spanish. The latest book is endorsed by the American College of Emergency Physicians.