Medic2medic Podcast

Episode 75: FBI, City of Pittsburgh EMS, diving the murky waters of the 3 Rivers and EMS are some of the topics that are on the podcast this week. Kurt Gardner has been in EMS for over 30 years. He became an EMT in 1985 and was a volunteer for Medical Rescue Team South in the south suburbs of Pittsburgh PA. He became a Paramedic in 1987 and was hired as a Paramedic by the City of Pittsburgh in 1988. While with the City of Pittsburgh, Kurt also served on the city’s HAZMAT team and was a Master Diver with the River Rescue.Following the September 2001 attacks, the Commonwealth established an in state Urban Search and Rescue team and the City of Pittsburgh was an integral part of that team. Kurt served as Medical Team Manager. Kurt retired after 21 years in the city to take a position within the FBI to provide specialized medical support. In his current position with the FBI, he is a Weapons of Mass Destruction Specialist. We discuss all the above and how the FBI uses Paramedics in the Bureau.

Episode 74: Jean Bail is the Director, Disaster Medicine and Management at Philadelphia University. Jean is a dedicated teacher, educator, paramedic, nurse and mentor. If it was not for Jean, this podcaster would of never graduated from college. It was a little EMS program at Hahnemann University, where our paths crossed. I was struggling as a college student up to this point. I was about to start a new job as supervisor in the City of Brotherly Love. Jean accepted me in the EMS Degree program and the rest is history. Jean and I talk about how she got the program started, the early days, the great faculty and her interest in EMS and infection control. We might mention some of my past podcast guests and what kind of students they (me) were like. A good discussion on leadership and education in EMS is included.

Episode 73: Jason Friesen is the Founder and Director of Trek Medics International. Trek Medics International is a non-profit, humanitarian organization dedicated to developing prehospital and emergency care in low and middle income countries. Jason is a paramedic with entrepreneurial spirit and has been working in international development since 2003. He is originally from the NYC-area and has spent many years living in Central America, the Caribbean and Europe, working for a number of recognized international humanitarian organizations including Project HOPE where he was the Haiti Country Director until mid-2012. We discuss how he got started in EMS and all about Trek Medic International. Jason is using technology (Beacon) in certain countries that allow the EMS providers to use their cell phones to respond to emergencies, ask for more resources and notifying the hospitals. How do you make a pitch to country's leaders that your organization is the right one for them? Jason answeres this question and more t

Episode 72: It is the night before Halloween and simulation is the name of the game. Is practicing and pretending is a good way to learn? We will find out. Amar Patel is the Director of the Center for Innovative Learning at WakeMed Health and Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is responsible for integrating technology-based education to include human patient simulation, healthcare gaming, and hybrid learning methodologies. Amar is a nationally registered paramedic, firefighter as well as the expert in patient simulations. So everything you want to know about the how, because and why we use simulation in EMS is discussed this week on the podcast.

Episode 71: David Page, MS, NRP, is the director of the Prehospital Care Research Forum at UCLA and field paramedic with Allina EMS in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. He is an adjunct Senior Lecturer and PhD candidate at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. David was awarded the prestigious Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Educator of the Year in 2011. He was also recognized as one of the 2012 EMS 10 Innovators for his role in creating the Saint Paul Fire Department’s EMS academy and Freedom House BLS unit. We discuss all the above and more. David is my third Eagle Scout to be a guest on the podcast. Is there a correlation between scouting and EMS? We talk about his first EMS call, which is one heck of a first call. David mentions what it was like to meet James Page for the first time. There is a great conversation about diversity and EMS.

Episode 70: A Special Pink Edition of the podcast. A year ago our friend and colleague from Cary Area EMS Division Chief Tammy Patton was diagnosed with breast cancer. Tammy joins me for a second time on the podcast to talk about her journey, her positive attitude and how the EMS community rallied around her. Check out this album of the fundraiser held for Tammy at caryems.org.

Episode 69: Everitt Binns has 50 years of EMS experience. That is a lot of years and time in this profession. He has held all positions and he is currently the EMS Chief for Grand View Health is Sellersville Pennsylvania. HIs experience as a leader, executive and professor has provided his employees, students and the EMS world with a wealth of knowledge and teachable moments. Ev as he likes to be called was one of my professors at Hahnemann University (now Drexel) and provided me with not just education, but lots of wisdom. We discuss Ev's leadership style, how he got into EMS, what I was like as a student and many other topics.

Episode 68: What do do when you mix a pilot and paramedic? Drew Baird is the answer and he is my guest this week on the podcast. Drew always wanted to put his passion of flying and EMS together and he knew it way back when in high school. Learn how this all began as well as Drew talks about his first call in EMS. We discuss his new venture Vector AeroMed. This aeromedical company flies patients all over the eastern 2/3 of the United States, Canada, Caribbean and Latin America. Through a partnership with Children's Flight of Hope, Vector AeroMed provides a great number of trips to kids traveling for specialty treatment of various illnesses free of charge to the families. We talk about Drew's entrepreneurial spirit and his love of teaching within the EMS community.

Episode 67: Ryan Stark is an associate attorney with Page, Wolfberg & Wirth. His concentration is with HIPAA, Labor, Medicare reimbursement and related areas of the law that affect the EMS industry. Our discussion surrounded the use of Body Camera use within the EMS community. Ryan answers the question that comes up any time you mention Body Cameras and EMS: Is it a HIPAA violation? The discussion leads to the pros and cons of body camera use by EMTs and Paramedics. If you are Chief or Administrator, what do you need to set up a Body Camera program in your organization? How do you get the "buy in" from your staff and the public? Ryan answers these questions and more.

Episode 66: Steve Daniels is the co-anchor of ABC11 Eyewitness News at 5:00 pm, 6:00 pm, and 11:00 pm Monday-Friday. In addition, Steve anchors Breaking News coverage from the Breaking News Center. Steve joined ABC11 Eyewitness News in June, 1999. Before coming to WTVD, Steve was a correspondent for "Dateline NBC". Steve traveled the country and the world interviewing newsmakers and reporting stories for the national newsmagazine program. Steve also appeared on the "Today" show, "NBC Nightly News", MSNBC, and CNBC. We talk about how the news covers public safety? How public safety is treated in the media? We discuss where he was during 9/11. Steve provides us with a behind the scenes look on story development and breaking news. We have fun talking his first job as a reporter and where he went to school to study journalism.

Episode 65: Dr. Jose G. Cabanas is a board-certified emergency medicine and EMS physician with a particular expertise on prehospital systems of care, continuous quality improvement and resuscitation. Dr. Cabanas is the Director/Medical Director for Wake County EMS in Wake County, North Carolina. Dr. Cabanas currently serves as a member of the National AHA ECC Systems of Care committee and Mission Lifeline Resuscitation Committee. He also serves as Member-at-Large for Board of Directors NAEMSP. In addition to his interest in the practice of prehospital medicine, Dr. Cabanas has an interest in clinical research and regularly publishes scientific articles on a number of topics in EMS, Emergency Medicine and Resuscitation. We discuss his early interest and start in emergency care, his leadership style and Dr. Cabanas reveals a few unknown facts about himself during our conversation. We discuss what is upcoming in EMS as well as in the Wake County EMS System.

Sgt Eric Sweden from the Raleigh Police Department joins me this week. Sgt Sweden is our first police officer to be on the podcast. We talk about the training he did for the Wake County EMS System regarding verbal judo. Before we get to that topic we banter about his beginnings in public safety. Sgt Sweden was a firefighter, EMT and Paramedic. He even worked as a Paramedic for Wake County EMS. You can tell Sgt Sweden is passionate about his career choices and he tells us about two patients that had an impact on him. Our other topics include violence to EMS providers, we touch on ballistic vests and a few pointers on how to deescalate a scene and safety for EMS providers.

Amy Eisenhauer started her EMS career in 1995. Her entrance into EMS is unusual and a good story. Amy is contributing author for EMS World magazine and has an interactive blog on EMS at TheEMSSiren.com. She speaks nationwide on subjects like hoarding, career development and provider wellbeing. We talk about all of the above and how her blog and writing started (another interesting story). Amy likes to teach and educate on different EMS subjects. Amy will be a Speaker at the North Carolina EMS State Conference this October.

Episode 62: Medic2Medic Podcast goes Hollywood this week. Dr. Neal Baer is a pediatrician and television writer who combines his passion for medicine and storytelling. Prior to his work as Executive Producer and Showrunner for Under the Dome, Dr. Baer was Executive Producer and Showrunner of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit for eleven seasons. Dr. Baer was also a Writer and Producer of the NBC hit series ER for its first seven seasons, where he received five Emmy nominations as a producer and two for writing.We discuss how he goes from Medical School to ER. We talk a lot about ER and how the ideas for that show came about and how the medicine goes from the written pages to the actors and how it looks so real. Dr. Baer gives an inside look on how medicine and TV work.

One of the most difficult topics this podcast has discussed. The suicide problem that is occurring within the EMS profession. This week's I talk with the founder of the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (FBHA) Jeff Dill. FBHA is dedicated to educating EMS, Police and Fire on suicide awareness. It is the only known organization that collects and validates data on FF/EMT suicides across the Unites States. Jeff besides being a retired Fire Captain holds a MS in Counseling. Suicide of Public Safety Providers, especially in EMS unfortunately is in the news on a regular basis. Just this week EMS1.com ran another article on the subject. We discuss how the organization got its start. We talk about suicide in EMS, what are some of the signs we should be looking for and how important that we educate our public safety family.

Episode 60: Wendell Hissrich is the Public Safety Director for the City of Pittsburgh. Wendell's experience includes EMS, Fire and Law Enforcement. His career path includes the City of Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS and many years in the FBI. While in the FBI, Wendell was involved with strategic management of the FBI's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) program for field coordination in the 56 field divisions with a focus on WMD operational response and investigations, both domestically and internationally. We talk about how the FBI integrated EMTs and Paramedics into the agency. We discuss the challenges he faces as the Director and our connection to Medic 5.

Rick SyWassink is an experienced individual with over 30 years experience in death investigation, forensic science, and autopsy protocol. As well as 15 years of adjunct and full time teaching experience at the college level. We discuss crime scene management by EMS, we touch on the violence that is occurring within the EMS community and he takes us through a murder case that took years to solve.

Episode 58: Dr. Bill Atkinson was one of the first paramedic students in North Carolina. Bill has held several leadership roles in and out of EMS. He has held numerous President and CEO positions in healthcare, with his last being at WakeMed Health Hospitals in Raleigh, NC. Bill sits on the NC EMS Advisory Council and is an active consultant. We talk about his early days in EMS and how he chose to move toward hospital leadership rather than EMS, though EMS was never far from his reach. We also discuss his unique leadership style and why he is a strong EMS advocate.

Deborah Stein has 24 plus years in EMS and currently is an Instructor at the University North Carolina teaching the AHA programs. Before joining UNC, Deborah was a member of my officer corps at Cary Area EMS. She was a Shift Supervisor, headed up our Training Department and was a Division Chief. We discuss those beginning days of my tenure, which you will find very interesting. We talk about Cary Area EMS, her beginnings in EMS and the changes at Cary Area EMS.

Mic Gunderson has over 40 years of experience in EMS, leadership and clinical roles. Listen how he goes from a film and photography interest as a career, to the military to EMS. It is a great story. He is currently the Director of Clinical Systems in the Quality and Health Technology Division of the American Heart Association. Mic has authored numerous journal articles. Mic and I meet way back when I was working in Philadelphia, which we touch on during our conversation. See how many people in our careers that we have in common that have influenced our careers.