I would like to extend special appreciation to Rosalie Peng, my extraordinary and talented illustrator. She endured my endless "tweaks" of the figures and produced some truly unique work.
I owe a debt of gratitude to my friends and colleagues who took time out of their busy schedules to review one or more chapters of the book. This includes Harry Agress, MD; David Blumenthal, MD; Anne Castioni, CCEMTP; Subbarao Choudry, MD; Adam Denker, BS; Sei Iwai, MD; the late Arnold Katz, MD; Michael Lehmann, MD; Stavros Montantonakis, MD; James Reiffel, MD; Arturo Rojas, MD; David Rubin, MD; Carmine Sorbera, MD; Tim Wages, RN; David Wolinsky, MD; and Peter Wong, MD.
I also wish to thank the editorial and production group at McGraw-Hill, originally Karen Edmonson followed by Tim Hiscock, as well as Revathi Viswanathan of KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd., for their stewardship of this project.