Five Questions With: Kevin Collopy on EMS World Spring and & Driving Prehospital Care Forward

Over a 20-plus year career in prehospital care, Kevin Collopy, BA, FP-C, CCEMT-P, NR-P, CMTE, says he’s been “blessed with the opportunity to provide patient care in four states and two countries, and to teach on three different continents and in more than 20 states.”

Collopy’s full-time job as clinical outcomes manager for AirLink/VitaLink Critical Care Transport in North Carolina keeps him busy overseeing education, clinical outcomes, and research for an award-winning transport system with more than 150 dedicated healthcare professionals.

Collopy is currently drafting five research papers to publication and is nearing two dozen peer-reviewed publications. He’s written nearly 175 prehospital care textbook chapters, CE articles, magazine articles, journal publications, and research abstracts/papers. Collopy states he is “humbled to be just one of many individuals helping drive our prehospital care education and research forward.” EMS World spoke with Collopy about his goals for EMS World Spring, a virtual conference scheduled for March 3–5 with a mission to bring world-class, cutting-edge research and clinical training to frontline providers.

EMS World: We’re looking forward to having you speak at EMS World Spring. Can you give us a glimpse of what you will be covering in your session?

Collopy: During EMS World Spring I am fortunate to be joining Dr. Cynthia Griffin, an air medical transport colleague, as we will discuss using scalpels on patients. My portion of the presentation is demystifying the surgical airway. This fast-paced discussion will look at the data behind prehospital surgical airway performance, destroy the myths surrounding the intervention, and look at some best practice models for skill performance. This is a packed presentation you won’t want to miss!

Why is it important for EMS professionals to attend EMS World Spring? What valuable industry knowledge can they gain from attending?

EMS World Spring is bringing world-class educators presenting pertinent, current, and practice-changing education into your home and offices. My guess is everyone who attends will walk away with at least five tangible tools that will change their approach to patient are. It’s more than just watching education online—this interactive conference allows us to network together and make connections with up-and-coming professionals, educators and leaders. COVID has forced transformations in prehospital patient care, prehospital transport safety, education, and administration. When we become stressed and tired, which all prehospital professionals justifiably are, we risk drifting from practice standards, and our risk of error rises. The spring conference comes at a key time, as it is an opportunity for us all to take a break, relax, and learn for a few days.

You’ve been involved with EMS World and EMS World Expo for a few years. What is the best part about speaking at Expo, writing for the journal, and being a member of the Advisory Board?

I’ve been very fortunate to have become involved with EMS World. I’ve presented at every Expo for the past 10 years, have regularly written and helped edit articles, and have been on the advisory board since 2012. Without a doubt the greatest opportunity this engagement has provided is the chance for Sean Kivlehan and me to develop and introduce Stand & Deliver during EMS World Expo. Stand & Deliver is the novice speaker “competition” that offers up-and-coming EMS presenters the opportunity to deliver a complete mini-lecture in 15 minutes and receive on-the-spot feedback from seasoned presenters to help enhance their stage presence, slides, presentation style, and content. The best part of being an educator is helping others grow and watching them be successful. We are thrilled the competition has been so successful and popular and can’t wait to see it grow this fall!

After a year of virtual meetings, some people may understandably have “Zoom fatigue.” Why EMS Spring?

Is there ever a bad time to learn? No other major prehospital care-focused conference is happening in March 2021. If you have the time, and you’re committed to learning, this agenda is guaranteed to help you grow. EMS World Spring isn’t just another Zoom meeting—trust me, I’ve had my fill myself. This is an opportunity to engage, learn, grow, and escape into our own small “EMS World” for a few days!

Can you tell us about any projects or future initiatives you are working on?

My wife jokes I never stop or sleep! Right now, I’m in the final two months of my master’s degree program, I’m writing a patient assessment chapter for a critical care transport textbook, and my team is preparing four research abstracts to submit to the International Scientific Symposium at EMS World Expo this fall.

Register for EMS World Spring at www.emsworldspring.com