JEMS Talk: Seeking a Rosetta Stone

Editor’s Note: Keep the conversation going by using #JEMSTalk.

Jonathon Feit has lamented (quite publicly) that in Mobile Medicine, “fire talks to fire, medics talk to medics, nurses talk to nurses, doctors talk to doctors, regulators talk to regulators, private talks to private, air talks to air, hospitals talk to hospitals…”  You get the idea.  We are a siloed discipline striving to be a cross-cutting profession.  We need to bridge the archipelago to shared success – and COVID-19 was nothing shy of catalytic in that regard.  For the longest time, in the words of two industry leaders – Anthony Correia and Mike Touchstone (a previous JEMS Talk guest ) – we have struggled with a “tribal” way of interacting.  

Then there’s Kaitlyn Krolikowski and her team at Purchase Area Health Connections.  Interoperability and a collective mindset are built right into their name!  In a discussion that led to this invitation to join us for a JEMS Talk, she mentioned the need for Mobile Medical agencies to understand what it looks like to engage with them – from the perspective of a public health professional.  What does the other side of the table want, need, see, hear, love and despise? 

Previous: Education in Mobile Medicine

How better to live the mission of collapsing the silo walls than to invite someone who is willing to tell us what we don’t know – but they really wish we would? Kaitlyn’s team in Kentucky has been driving Community Paramedicine-like programs to successful results for years.  They keep winning project after project, building relationships across the community, including with hospitals, public health and safety organizations, and perhaps most importantly, they have the trust of their community members to accommodate a range of healthcare needs…from the chronic to the chronically acute.

Our discussion will be like seeking a Rosetta Stone: we’ll unpeel the onion to understand the many layers that all who wish to engage in interdisciplinary practices like Mobile Integrated Health (or whatever the work calls itself during any given week) need to realize if we’re to maximize our chance of success and be the best possible partner.  We’ll get better at translating so language can stop being a stumbling block.  We’ll realize that we are in closer agreement than we think, because the countless parts of the healthcare ecosystem need one another to achieve a comprehensive public health and safety win.  

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