Charles Duke, MD
Dr. Duke is an emergency medicine physician who was born in Memphis, TN. His first career was in chemistry after earning a PhD in organometallic photochemistry at the University of Memphis and later working in pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Tennessee. He changed careers to pursue an MD at the University of Tennessee and then at Yale where he completed residency in Emergency Medicine and a fellowship in Wilderness Medicine.
He has done high altitude illness research in the Khumbu region of Nepal at the base of Mt. Everest, trained on high angle rope rescue, is an instructor of Advanced Wilderness Life Support, and served with the National Park Service in Alaska on Mt. Denali doing search and rescue. In addition, he has earned the Diploma in Mountain
Medicine, Diploma in Dive and Marine Medicine, Fellowship in the Academy of
Wilderness Medicine, and is a PADI Master Diver.
He moved to the Big Island with his wife Dr. Jessica Duke, also an Emergency and Wilderness Medicine physician, and their dog Denali. They enjoy hiking, trail running, SCUBA diving, cycling, and world travel with their son.