January 2004 Industry News

Texas' Williamson County EMS has been named the 2003 Paramedic Emergency Medical Service of the Year by the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT). The award, sponsored by Zoll Medical Corp., recognizes ambulance services that provide outstanding value to their communities. Williamson County EMS, which has also been recognized numerous times by the Texas Department of Health, performs such community services as drunk-driving prevention programs, child safety seat inspections and working with new mothers to manage emergencies…Denise Graham's nationally recognized educational program The Missing Protocol-A Legally Defensible Report is now available online, and departments can experience the program-which provides the template for legally sound prehospital reports and promotes provider competence in writing reports-through distance learning. For more information, call 301/972-7887, or visit www.themissingprotocol. com…Zoll Medical Corp. has reached a pair of agreements to deploy its M Series defibrillators and accessories in Norway. The first, with the County Council of Northern Norway, calls for 168 units to be installed in ambulances and medical clinics; the second, with the Norwegian Air Ambulance System, calls for 19 units to be installed in helicopters nationwide, more than half of the system's total fleet…CAS Medical Sys-tems has announced its receipt of Frost & Sullivan's Patient Monitoring Niche Player of the Year Award, announced at the Global Excellence in Healthcare and Life Sciences Awards Banquet in November. CAS most recently introduced the CAS 740 Vital Signs Monitor, with proprietary Motion Artifact Extraction (MAXNIBP) technology for obtaining blood pressures under challenging field conditions…Also at November's Global Excellence in Healthcare and Life Sciences Awards Banquet, Masimo Corporation received Frost & Sullivan's 2003 Patient Monitoring Technology of the Year Award for its Signal Extraction Technology (SET). Masimo SET helped modernize the pulse oximetry and patient monitoring markets by allowing the non-invasive measure of oxygen saturation levels in difficult and high-risk patients… StatPacks, a startup manufacturer of bags and accessories for EMS providers, has reached a distribution agreement with Galls to include its products in the latter's catalog. The deal is expected to benefit StatPacks' growth, allowing it to avoid distribution challenges that plague many new companies. “With two pages in the Galls catalog, we can reach more EMS professionals in one quick shot than we ever could by trying to sell this product direct," StatPacks Sales Director Mike Blosser said of the agreement… Medwave Inc. has announced a distribution agreement with EMS Innovations Inc. to provide its products to the EMS and first responder markets. The company offers the Vasotrac Monitor, featuring High Motion Tolerance (HMT) software, designed for the prehospital environment. “EMS Innovations Inc. is proud to bring this cutting-edge technology to emergency care professionals through our distribution network," that company's president, Dr. Joe Ferko, said of the deal.