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EMS World Expo 2022 Kicks Off in Orlando
In a state still ravaged by Hurricane Ian, the world’s largest EMS-dedicated conference kicked off Wednesday morning Oct. 12, 2022 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando with a nod to the first responders still working in the recovery effort.
Christian Zuver, MD, EMS medical director for the Orange County EMS system, welcomed attendees to Orlando, adding thoughts and prayers to the victims of Hurricane Ian while acknowledging the first responders from throughout the state and nation who rose to the challenge.
Following Zuver’s opening remarks, Joshua Hartman, MBA, NRP, senior vice president of EMS World, took the podium to further acknowledge the efforts of the Ian responders. “We stand together at the ready for our communities and each other, always,” Hartman said.
Following Hartman’s presentation of the National EMS Awards of Excellence, David Page, director of the Prehospital Care Research Forum at UCLA, presented awards to Jamie Kennel and Kevin Collopy for Best Research Awards and presented Remle Crowe with the Power of One Award for facilitating over 50 research abstracts.
Florida Sen. Rick Scott provided a video message of thanks to the audience before Kenneth Scheppke, MD, Florida’s deputy secretary of health, outlined the origins of EMS and how many of the same problems in the 1960s persist today. However, unworthy practices have been discontinued while science-directed innovations shape the future such as whole blood, ketamine, stroke research, antibiotic therapy for septic shock, and dozens of other interventions now becoming commonplace thanks to research.
Looking ahead, community paramedicine harkens back to the age of doctors’ home visits, brings the ER to the patient, and is the wave of the future, Scheppke said.
“Heroic” is the word that best describes EMS, he concluded.
The main keynote address was delivered by social media sensation Jason Patton, a 15-year firefighter and paramedic who has spent the last 8 years as a field training officer for new paramedics hired at Riviera Beach Fire Rescue in Jupiter, Florida. Patton is vice president of Fire Department Coffee as well as creator of Fire Department Chronicles, entertaining videos that are followed by millions of firefighters and EMS personnel across the world.
A mechanic 18 years ago, Patton entered EMT school following a serendipitous conversation with a friend and “loved from day one the passion I saw in people’s eyes,” he said. “The people in this field are the most interesting humans you will meet in your life.”
Calling EMS World Expo the “greatest gathering of medical minds on the face of the planet,” Patton urged his audience to learn from each other, have as many conversations as they can with people they don’t know, and to learn from others’ successes.
Comments
I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing you at Ems world 2022 in Olando and I am in agreement that we need to have multiple conversation and learn from each other. I am from Antigua in the Caribbean I have been an AEMT for the past 20 years.
—Vermalie Brodie