The EMS indutry is full of innovators, many with ideas ahead of their time.
When I was a regional EMS director in Eastern Pennsylvania in the ’80s, people came into my office with products and concepts that others (physicians included) laughed at — things like a FULLY automatic external defibillator (AED), a device that measured the depth of cardiac compressions and a metronome to keep them consistent, disposable IV bags that wouldn’t break if they fell in the back of an ambulance, electronic sirens (Ha!), disposable airsplints to reduce the chances of contamination, a recorder that could be added onto the Lifepak V to let you to not only see what was on the monitor but listen to what was occuring and being said at the scene, and the use of Transportation, Staging, Safety and REHAB Officers at disaster scenes.
Many said these ideas and products were nonsense or unnecessary. Today, we see these ideas as brilliant. I wish I could have given each of the innovators who came up with those ideas a special recognition.
You don’t have to live with the same 20/20 hindsight. Acknowledge your local, state, regional or national innovators TODAY for an idea, program or procedure they put forward in 2008 and nominate them to be one of the “EMS 10.” Their idea may very well be one of the best ideas of the future!
The“EMS 10”will receive recognition at theEMS Today Conference and Expositionin March 20009 and they will receive complimentary registration to attend EMS Today. They will also be profiled in a special supplement in the April issue ofJEMS.
Don t let these INNOVATORS go unrecognized:Take five minutes to nominate someone you know who was an EMS innovator in 2008. (Nominations close January 2.)
