Facilitating a Digital Dialogue
In the beginning, there were MS-DOS, listservs, AOL, CompuServe and Netscape Navigator. Long ago, these and other “high-tech” inventions ushered in the digital age. My, how times have changed. Today we have Facebook, Twitter, Skype, blogs, podcasts, wikis, and a host of other online technologies that have literally transformed the way people communicate around the world. And Tom Bouthillet, EMT-P, has been there from the beginning.
As a former street paramedic, Mary Meyers, MHA, EMT-P, understands the difficulties that EMS providers face each day, particularly working in an unpredictable environment.
Let’s be clear about the focus that Paul Paris, MD, FACEP, LLD (Hon.) has on EMS. Paris, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and medical director for the Center for Emergency for Western Pennsylvania, is all about the health and safety of EMS providers. To prove it, he has spent much of his professional life advocating for the kinds of research that will make their lives safer and easier.
If you call up FirstWatch.net, you will see a dramatic opening on its website: “Bioterrorism. Epidemics. Crime Patterns. Operational Vulnerabilities. For any kind of threat, earlier detection means earlier action. Know first with FirstWatch.”
By law, all EMS providers must operate under the medical oversight of a licensed physician. However, most physicians have little wilderness medical experience, and there hasn’t been specific training has been lacking for physicians in providing this type of oversight in a wilderness environment. Until now.
After a successful 14-year career as a pediatric emergency department (ED) nurse, Stephanie Haley-Andrews, RN, EMT-P, began searching for a new calling. As she thought about it, she knew she would stay in emergency medicine. She knew she had a profound respect for the EMS colleagues she encountered every day. And she knew she cared deeply about children’s medical and trauma care. The job she eventually fashioned for herself pulled all these elements together into something that has had a far-reaching effect on the state of Colorado and the neighboring region.
No one in the nation will ever forget April 20, 1999, as the day that two students from Columbine (Colo.) High School opened fire and killed 12 fellow students and one teacher and injured more than two dozen others.
Pat Songer, NREMT-P, ASM, has always had a passion for public service and a desire to direct that passion to the underserved, and sometimes overlooked, EMS agencies in rural America. Working now in Winnemucca, Nev., two hours east of Reno, Songer, director of EMS for Humboldt General Hospital, has developed and launched some of the most influential programs and initiatives that region has ever seen.
Enhancing Motorcycle Rider Safety
When Rob Lawrence, MCMI, initially started watching a motorcycle safety program develop and grow where he lived in the United Kingdom, he was intrigued. When he immigrated from the U.K. to Richmond, Va., in 2009, he brought his family, his worldly possessions, and this idea, which was started in Europe: that motorcycle riders and EMS could work together to help enhance motorcycle rider safety.
David Reinis, EMT-P, has been a paramedic for more than 30 years, an EMS educator for four and a creative, out-of-the-box thinker all his life. His unique way of looking at the world, combined with his educational talent, has taken dissection to a new level and given EMS providers a chance to elevate their hands-on skills in a most unique and proactive way.
