I’m having an awesome time at EMS Today!
I thought I better start blogging about it before I get too far behind.
I’ll spare you the details of my trip up here. Suffice to say there were numerous flight delays and I probably could have driven here faster!
Regardless, I checked into the Hilton Baltimore, a very nice (albeit overpriced) hotel right next to the Convention Center. I wasted no time making some new friends at the Diamond Tavern!
Thursday, March 4
8:30 a.m. Opening Ceremonies and Keynote Address
I almost didn’t attend the opening ceremonies but I’m glad I did! The pipes and drums are always nice, but against all odds I actually enjoyed the keynote address by JEMS Editor-in-Chief A.J. Heightman. In a talk called “Climbing your own personal Everest” he conveyed his own personal struggle with weight loss in an entertaining, informative, and inspirational way.
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. From Technician to Clinician: The Art of Critical Thinking in EMS
Raymond L. Fowler, MD, FACEP
Jeff Beeson, DO, LP
Dr. Ray Fowler was an early supporter of the Prehospital 12-Lead ECG blog. He wrote me a very nice and encouraging email after reading my article on R-wave progression. He also gave me a link to his website at http://www.doctorfowler.com/ where I found some outstanding lectures which you can find HERE.
When I saw he was presenting at EMS Today I decided to sign up for his breakout session. I wasn’t disappointed! Dr. Fowler and Dr. Beeson discussed many of the pitfalls that can trip us up when we evaluate patients (things like diagnosis momentum) and they made the case that EMS needs to transition from a technician to a clinician mindset. Of course, this can only happen through enhanced education.
One of my favorite quotes from the session was when Dr. Beeson said, “The eyes cannot see that which the mind does not know.” I think that’s especially true when it comes to 12-lead ECG interpretation.
12:15 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. Networking Lunch
This could have been a disaster. I signed up for the Networking Lunch (which cost an extra $37.00 and was limited to 100 people). Unfortunately, this event was not well attended and the lunch didn’t show up when it was supposed to.
Fortunately, JEMS Editor-in-Chief A.J. Heightman was there to improvise. He identified the problem and ran interference until the food showed up. He also led some discussion about various issues ranging from Generation Y to best practices from around the country.
Obviously this man is used to putting out fires! He took a situation that could have been bad and made it tolerable. Was it worth $37.00? No, but it could been much worse.
1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. 10 Case Studies! 10 Brand-New Cases
Paul Werfel, BA, NREMT-P
I first saw Paul Werfel in this story in the Washington Times about Washington D.C. paramedics (click the link and watch the video). He struck me as a no-nonsense guy who isn’t afraid to “tell it like it is.” I admire that trait so I signed up for his case studies.
It was definitely a worth-while session! The case studies made you think. He was funny, too, in a dry sort of way. At one point during the session a student asked (in reference to a case study), “How about a 12-lead ECG?” Paul answered, “The ECG looks normal. Would you like to see a right-sided ECG?” The student said, “Sure.” He said, “That also looks normal.”
Paul is the kind of EMS instructor that everyone should have. It’s obvious that he cuts no slack but it’s equally obvious that he turns out qualified EMS professionals, and that’s what’s really important! You shouldn’t “pass” if you don’t know what you’re doing. Once upon a time in American history that would go without saying!
3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Lightning Round: Ask (some of) the Eagles, National Urban EMS Medical Directors
Jeff Breeson, DO, LP
Ray Fowler, MD, FACEP
Jeffrey M. Goodloe, MD, NREMT-P, FACEP
Corey Slovis, MD, FACP, FACEP
Paul E. Pepe, MD, MPH, FACEP, MACP, FCCP
This was interesting for me, especially since I didn’t get to attend the A Gathering of Eagles conference last week in Dallas (I chose EMS Today instead).
Many interesting topics were covered, including diversion of controlled substances, cardiac arrest management, advanced airway devices, and the use of lights and sirens.
Apparently Dr. Slovis uses “five” a lot when he teaches residents at Vanderbilt (e.g., five causes of this or that, five reasons for this or that) and Dr. Fowler likes to tease him about it.
The banter between the physicians was funny, but it actually turned out to be a great teaching moment when Dr. Fowler asked Dr. Slovis to name the “five steps of cardiac arrest management”. Dr. Slovis didn’t disappoint when he came up with this impromptu list.
Five Steps to Cardiac Arrest Management
- Pre-arrest – get the word o
ut in the community about compression-only CPR! - Get to cardiac arrest patients quickly. Too many EMS systems are wasting up to 3-minutes processing the 9-1-1 call.
- Our first responders are indispensable partners in our chain-of-survival and need to be treated as equals.
- Advanced responders need to know what works and utilize evidence-based techniques.
- EMS needs to partner with our other emergency partners inside the hospital by using things like therapeutic hypothermia and other best practices.
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Opening of the Exhibit Hall
I entered the exhibit hall and almost immediately ran into Justin Schorr (@TheHappyMedic), Mark Glencorse (@UKMedic999), Ted Setla (@setla), and the rest of the Chronicles of EMS gang including Jamie Davis (@podmedic) MedicCast and Chris Montera (@geekymedic) The EMS Garage. These are obviously some really great guys. I was impressed with how friendly everyone was.
I also ran into “The Godfather” Kelly Grayson (@AmboDriver), another blogger I like to read who prefers to remain anonymous, as well as Dave Iannone (@cooldavej) and Chris Hebert (@chebert13) from Go Forward Media (the brains behind JEMS Connect and FireEMSBlogs.com). I also met several other bloggers today (Friday March 5) that I will tell you about tomorrow if I have time.
To wrap up the evening the good folks from Physio-Control treated me to a very nice dinner at The Oceanaire Seafood Room! What an awesome restaurant! Thanks, guys! I really appreciate it.
Speaking of the Podmedic, I will be a guest on the MedicCast live from the floor of EMS Today this Saturday at 12:00 p.m.! You can find details HERE.
The Fire/EMS Blogger Meetup is this evening and promises to be epoch! If you’re here at EMS Today, I hope you can stop by.
See also:
Great post Tom, very detailed.Waiting for the next update.
I'll try not to disappoint, Taz! Tonight should be interesting!
Tom