Dr. Kurlan (author) attended Rowan Univ. (formerly UMDNJ) & completed residency in emergency medicine at Midwestern Univ. (formerly CCOM) & was board-certified in emergency medicine in 1996. He currently practices urgent care medicine in San Diego, after spending a decade as a full-time emergency physician.

• Evolution of the 1st Edition:

“During clinical rotations & internship, I always admired classmates who could not only recall the details of everything they’d read, but also cite journal articles. For me, trying to keep up seemed impossible. Every time I needed to look something up (pre-internet era), I’d find a big fat reference book, turn to its index, & then scan through page after page trying to find some obscure detail. That was a challenge, so I started keeping alphabetized notes in a pocket-size ring binder, which I called my ‘pocket brain.’ Over the years, it grew in breadth until it was literally bursting at the seams. I’d use it to look up stats or to quiz my junior colleagues, who often said, ‘you ought to publish that!’ So one day, I sat down with my laptop & began typing. And in 1996, I self-published the 1st edition of The Pearl Dictionary.  The current (10th) edition has evolved considerably since then, but retains the same alphabetical format that made the original the quickest way to find the facts!“

• New 10th Edition:

Obsessively updated with new data from conferences & journal articles. This new 10th edition was published in paperback format in 2026.

One of these is Leonardo Da Vinci’s original Notebook (c. 1490). The other is the author’s original hand-written Pocket Brain (c. 1990). Notice the similarity!