If you watch TikTok, and let’s be honest, you all do; you know The EMS Avenger from his short posts on evidence-based medicine and all around being a good egg as a clinician.
Dan got to sit down with him (aka: Jimmy Apple) and got to talk about social media in EMS, likes and dislikes, and the role of social media like TikTok in making clinicians better, not just passing time while posted!
Dan Gerard is a man of many hats. He is the current President of the IAEMSC as well as the EMS Coordinator for Alameda county in California. He has spent his lengthy EMS career pursuing new advancements in pre-hospital medicine and is currently piloting a program in Alameda county that may be a game changer when it comes to recognizing and treating seizures in the field. Ceribell is a device that wraps around a patient’s head like a headband and produces real-time EEG tracings that can be interpreted by an EMS clinician with little to no training. The best part about this system is that it is already FDA approved an is being used in hospitals with encouraging results. Take a listen and let us know what you think!
Natalie Zink is a paramedic and medical student in Georgia who speaks extensively on women’s rights and the medical treatment of abortion. Her work can be found in EMSWorld and in other publications. This episode, recorded May 22, 2022 discusses the leaked Supreme Court brief suggesting the overturn of 1973’s Roe v. Wade and 1992’s Casey v. Planned Parenthood. Ed and Natalie discuss what field providers can expect and how to treat abortions in the field. This episode is wide-ranging from the logistics of certain legislation to how it effects healthcare providers. Countries such as Poland have attempted similar legislation to no avail. Abortion is a safe and (currently) legal intervention that will occur regardless of the current laws. It is important that EMS and pre-hospital providers know how to treat these patients and what they can expect moving forward should this case become law.
One of the most misunderstood pieces of equipment we have is the bag valve mask. Easy to operate, but hard to master, it’s one of the fundamental skills we need to master.
Rommie Duckworth is a nationally-known paramedic and educator in Connecticut who is truly passionate about education and ventilation, and Dan gets to pick his brain and talk about what really matters when we have to breathe for our patients who can’t do it for themselves.
If you were at the National Association of EMS Physicians Conference this past week, you would have been able to see Dr. Michael Lauria speak. Mike is a USAF veteran, Pararescueman, flight paramedic, and currently an emergency medicine physician in the US. He has appeared on the EMCrit podcast and numerous others to talk about stress and managing it in the field of medicine.