NAEMSP President's Letter

Ronald G. Pirrallo, MD, MHSA

Dear Members,

I trust everyone who travelled to Tucson for the 2012 NAEMSP® Annual Meeting enjoyed a productive conference and arrived home safely. If the number of paid attendees was the sole measure of a successful meeting, this was NAEMSP®’s most successful meeting ever. There were 662 attendees, with standing room only attendance at the Medical Director’s and Advanced Topics Courses. Clearly NAEMSP® members attend not just to be seen but to meet old friends, make new ones, share ideas, learn, and challenge the latest EMS scientists. From Dr. Hiroyuki Hayashi’s lessons learned on how to manage radiation injury, to the provocative results of the CIRC and ROC trials, to the introduction of the CDC MMWR Guidelines for the Field Triage of the Injured Patients, I believe much was gained by this year’s attendees.

Two issues seemed to dominate the patio discussions: EMS Fellowships and the CMS Challenge Grants.

It is still undetermined how the new ACGME accreditation of EMS Fellowships will reshape the current EMS Fellowship programs. Will the fellowship be 12 or 24 months in length? What EMS experiences are expected? Are only United States EM graduates eligible to apply? These are many important questions with no definitive answers. Members are literally witnessing the birth of a subspecialty, with all of the growing pains involved. To assist in this transition from non-ACGME to ACGME EMS Fellowship education, NAEMSP® will be hosting a 1 day forum with leadership from ABEM, ACGME, and NAEMSP® as a pre-conference to the 2013 NAEMSP® Annual Meeting. It is envisioned that EMS Fellowship Directors, current and potential, and their programs’ administrators will attend to seek answers directly from the source. NAEMSP® will share the transcripts of the salient points widely. I am informed that the September 2012 ACGME meeting is when the accreditation parameters will be proposed. Since the Core Content for EMS Medicine was released by PEC, it essential that future EMS Fellows complete the content that the ABEM Subspecialty Examination in EMS Medicine will be based upon. I am excited about the reinvigorated attention to our EMS Fellows’ education and look forward to the 1^st ABEM certifying examination that will truly recognize EMS physicians.

The CMS Challenge Grant deadline actually occurred just after our annual meeting. I anticipate that multiple grant applicants will include EMS personnel and agencies in cost effective, quality of care models that address not only high prevalence emergency medical conditions such as STEMI, stroke, and trauma but also chronic illness surveillance and injury prevention. The EMS community was eager to support these innovative health care partnerships. NAEMSP® penned a letter of support cosigned by the Presidents of ACEP, AEMS, IAFC, IAFF, NAEMSE, NAEMSP, NAEMT, NASEMSO and NEMSMA. These organizations offered their collective expertise and resources to assist CMS. I trust CMS will critically evaluate EMS’s novel service delivery model and see EMS’s added value to the health care infrastructure.

Yes, I would say another successful NAEMSP® Annual Meeting. To make the event even more memorable, the weather was inviting and the daily patio 5:30 pm story of true love irresistible.

Ron Pirrallo -- pirrallo@mcw.edu