Ronald Kirschner, MD

Associate Professor, UNMC Department of Emergency Medicine
Medical Director, Nebraska Regional Poison Center

A graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Ronald Kirschner, MD, earned his medical degree and completed his emergency medicine residency at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. During residency, he developed a strong interest in medical toxicology while on rotation at the New York City poison center. After residency, Dr. Kirschner took a faculty position at an academic emergency medicine program in New England. Years later he became a trauma victim and serious injuries from a vehicle crash led him to reconsider a career working in the emergency department. Dr. Kirschner then went ”back to school” completing a two-year medical toxicology fellowship program in Pennsylvania before serving as a poison center medical director in Texas, and later in Nebraska.

Although part of the Department of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Kirschner spends most of his time at the Nebraska Poison Center where he reviews and updates guidelines for management of common overdose or poisoning situations, provides guidance to the nurses and pharmacists who answer initial calls to the center, and offers phone consultations to medical providers throughout our service area which also includes Wyoming and Idaho. Dr. Kirscher is available for bedside consultation on patients at Nebraska Medicine and Children’s Nebraska. He directs on-site toxicology rotations for emergency medicine and pharmacy residents as well as critical care fellows from Creighton University and pharmacy students. Dr. Kirschner also gives educational presentations at regional and national conferences.

Dr. Kirschner’s research interests include toxicity from acetaminophen and other non-prescription analgesics, substances of abuse, and reptile envenomation. He has given numerous presentations at national toxicology meetings that have been published in abstract form in the Journal of Medical Toxicology and Clinical Toxicology. When there are new developments in our field that we feel emergency caregivers or critical care providers should be aware of, such as a novel substance of abuse or a new treatment approach, he sends updates to health care facilities in the Nebraska Poison Center’s service area.

The Nebraska Poison Center is available 24/7. Public callers can speak with a health care professional (nurse or pharmacist) at no cost by calling 1-800-222-1222.