EMS Today

The Thing About Texas, Part 1

In the latest episode of Sacred Cows & Data Cubes -- Part one of a two-part mid-pandemic deep dive -- Jonathon Feit talks with Joseph Casciotti, battalion chief of Community Medicine at the Harris County (TX) Emergency Service District 48 Fire Department.

Chief Casciotti oversees Community Paramedicine/Mobile Integrated Health, infectious disease prevention and control, and COVID-19 response (both exposure tracking and vaccinations).  No holds were barred in this frank discussion, which covers politics, misinformation, the now-very-clear consequences of raiding public health funding for years, and even the ease of documenting -- on white paper cards -- COVID-19 shots that one may or may not have actually taken.

(Coming soon: Part two will explore the experience of sharing data with a state immunization registry...only to find errors in one's own vaccine record.) 

Alee Anderson

How can storytelling impact the first-responder culture? Hear from a ghostwriter Alee Anderson, who specializes in working with victims of trauma.

"Telling stories is one of the most powerful means that leaders have to influence, teach and inspire,” Anderson said. “What makes storytelling so effective for learning? For starters, storytelling forges connections among people, and between people and ideas. Stories convey the culture, history and values that unite people."

An In-Depth Discussion of the ImageTrend Collaborate™ Report

Join EMS TODAY Show host A.J. Heightman, and Douglas Butler, Director of Clinical Services for ImageTrend, one of the nation’s largest and diversified data service companies in the United States, for a deep dive into one of the most comprehensive reports ever produced in EMS.

Oren Barzilay on 25th Anniversary of FDNY and EMS Merger

Guest: President Oren Barzilay

March 17, 2021, marks the 25th anniversary of the merger between FDNY and NY EMS. FDNY EMS Local 2507 President Oren Barzilay was an EMT at the time of this merger. President Oren joins the EMS Handoff crew on this special episode celebrating this momentous occasion discussing not only the history of this merger but where he says FDNY and EMS in the future.

New SafetyNeb Mask Without Viral Particle Release

AerosoLess Medical has recently released a revolutionary new face mask that allows medical personnel to again provide nebulized treatments, targeted directly into the patient’s lungs.  The SafetyNeb^TM Mask uses patent-pending technology to create a CPAP-like tight seal with the patient’s face and is also fitted with water-resistant viral filters over its vent holes. These features drastically reduce the ability of pathogens contained in patients’ exhaled breath and coughs to escape into the environment.

The SafetyNeb Mask was introduced to the market by Dr. Paul Louis, an emergency medicine physician.  In our new era, where we have a new awareness about aerosols, particularly in the confined space of an ambulance, the SafetyNeb Mask allows frontline workers to treat patients effectively with nebulized albuterol, atrovent and even TXA, without exposing themselves to patient pathogens. 

Read more about it in JEMS.

Ebola in 2021

Infection control consultant Katherine West talks about Ebola. Why is she discussing it in 2021? Hasn’t it come and gone? Not exactly.

Do It for Drew

Guests: David and Kimberly Hughes

In this week’s episode of The EMS Handoff, the hosts take a week off and open up the chest of unreleased episodes from the days of the Tuesday EMS Tidbits Podcast. Back in the day, Eric, Bradley, and David were joined by David and Kimberly Hughes. They are the parents of Drew Hughes and the Founders of the Do It For Drew Foundation. They have a tremendous story about their son, and the events that precipitated the creation of the Do it For Drew Foundation. Their story has inspired many others, and their goal is to help EMS providers around the globe be better every day. 

Find more about their story at https://www.doitfordrew.org

Don’t forget to get your EMS Handoff Gear at www.pursueoutfitters.com/emshandoff

Erik Hernandez

Project Mayday is happy to promote 809 Fight 4 Awareness that supports the mental wellness of our first responders in Southern California! Erik Hernandez shares his story on how he started with 809 Fight 4 Awareness and his own story for mental wellness as a first responder.

Philadelphia’s Failure

Ambulance Science Podcast: Philadelphia’s failure to fund EMS forces “meat wagon-tactics" by police, while surgeons ignore the real problem, say Scot Phelps and Maria Werner.

 

Key Points:

• Philadelphia Fire EMS is severely underfunded, with a unit-hour utilization of 1.0, meaning they're busy 100% of the time, leading to a delayed response time
• As a result, critical penetrating trauma patients are transported by police, without any care, in the back of prisoner vans to trauma centers
• But rather than advocating for more ambulances, especially in this era of limiting police scope creep, surgeons consistently try to justify the police transport model

All About TXA

There has been a lot of buzz about the drug TXA (tranexamic acid), an inexpensive medication that has few negative side effects and has shown some success in reducing mortality in a segment of trauma patients.

But the key word is “effect.” Is TXA effective and is it being shown as having an effective benefit for prehospital trauma patients?

Join JEMS Editor Emeritus A.J. Heightman and the principals of the International Prehospital Medicine Institute (IPHMI): Will Chapleau, EMT-P, RN, TNS; Greg Chapman, B.S., R.R.T., REMT-P; Michael J. Hunter, EMT-P, TP-C; Peter T. Pons, M.D., F.A.C.E.P.; and Lance Stuke, M.D., F.A.C.S, as they discuss TXA, its indications and a whole host of relevant research such as the large CRASH-2 trials, the Military (MATTERS) study; the civilian prehospital and hospital “STAAMP” study and the CRASH-3 Traumatic Brain injury study.

The content and discussion will help you understand what the research is showing and whether TXA has a future in the field of prehospital medicine.