All physicians who work in emergency medicine in Québec and Canada are connected to Dr. Edmond Monaghan. He was a leader and a pioneer who established the first training program in emergency medicine in Canada, in 1972, at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal.

After graduating from the Université de Laval in 1957, he trained in general surgery at McGill University and then joined the staff of the Royal Victoria Hospital, where he had a long and accomplished career. He was honoured with the title of Professor Emeritus of General Surgery.

Ed Monaghan was a natural teacher and was always interested in emergency medical care, for which there was no formal training when he began his career. He described a meeting he attended in the late 1960s at St. Joseph's Hospital in Cincinnati with like-minded MDs (including Dr. Heimlich!) who wanted to develop programs to train residents for emergency care. The outcome was the first training program in emergency medicine at the University of Cincinnati in 1970. This was followed by two other U.S. programs in 1971 and the McGill program in 1972. He was involved in the early formative years of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, in the development of the Montreal Emergency Medical Services and 911 system, and with promoting Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support and Advanced Trauma Life Support training.

How relatively recent that these events are reminds us of how young we are, as a group, specializing in emergency medical care. Some of us still working today remember Dr. Monaghan as our Emergency Medicine Chief – a direct connection to our very beginnings.