24|7|365 was my first feature-length directing opportunity after leaving my career as a creative director in entertainment branding and design. While documentary filmmaking wasn’t originally the path I imagined for myself, the scale of the opportunity—and the story itself—felt impossible to ignore.
The film tells the story of the pioneering doctors who created Emergency Medicine as a legitimate medical specialty in the United States. Before their efforts, emergency rooms were often understaffed, underfunded, and treated as secondary spaces within hospitals. Many of the physicians who helped build the specialty were aging or beginning to pass away, and it became clear that if their stories were ever going to be captured firsthand, the time to do it was now.
We traveled throughout the United States and internationally interviewing more than thirty physicians, historians, and medical pioneers. Extensive research went into shaping the film—from archival photography and historical materials to firsthand accounts from the doctors who helped define the field itself.
One of the biggest creative challenges was finding the structure of the story. I wanted the documentary to feel historically important while still emotionally accessible to a general audience. What emerged was an approach that connected the evolution of Emergency Medicine with the ways television and popular culture shaped public perception—from Emergency! and MASH* to ER. My background in entertainment branding and audience psychology became an unexpected asset in helping shape the storytelling approach.
As the project came together, we were fortunate to secure Anthony Edwards, star of ER, to narrate the film. The documentary eventually aired nationally on PBS and went on to receive the Emmy® Award for Outstanding Documentary – New England, along with multiple festival selections and industry honors.
What remains most meaningful to me, however, came after the film’s release. The American Board of Emergency Medicine was so moved by one segment of the documentary that they requested it become part of the board certification process for future Emergency Medicine physicians. To know that a piece of storytelling I directed became part of how future doctors are introduced to the humanity of their profession remains one of the greatest honors of my career.
“It will transform your view of humanity.”
- EMRA Magazine
24|7|365: THE EVOLUTION OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE | BTS IMAGES
24|7|365: THE EVOLUTION OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE | KEY ART
