When did you begin researching issues related to the profession? Unofficially, I began many years before becoming official. Officially speaking, I have been a researcher since 2017. In my role, research enabled me to revamp, customize, launch, and optimize process improvement initiatives and programs to maximize operational performance and enhance customer service. What started you along the research and process improvement path? I took a new role within my organization in 2017, which requires me to research many aspects of not...
Where do you work? Madison County Fire Department Communications, Huntsville, AL, USA. As manager, I oversee operations for 14 full-time employees; handle all policy development, training program development, and quality assurance/quality improvement program oversight; and am a liaison with 16 volunteer fire chiefs and other public safety officials. What are the parts of your job that connect with research? I regularly analyze data in decision-making in all fields identified above. My recent research project published in AEDR...
Research Spotlight highlights a study that might be of interest to our readers. An interview with one or more of the study's authors also provides a more personal, behind-the-scenes understanding of how and why research is done. In this issue, we're highlighting a study done by Michelle Lilly, Ph.D., and Kim Turner, which examines how duty-related factors impact stress and mental/physical health outcomes...
It didn't take much time for Jeff Clawson, M.D., to connect the dots between Marc Gay's contributions to resuscitation science and the Dispatch Life Support (DSL) tools central to the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch® (IAED™) Protocols. That was more than 25 years ago, and Marc's involvement since 1992 has included several leadership positions, culminating this year with his nomination as chair of the IAED Council of Research. It hasn't been a hard sell on either side. "Let's face it," Marc said, "this guy named Jeff Clawson revolutionized the world...
What led you to the study of clinical psychology? I've always loved the study of medicine and knew early on that I wanted to pursue a degree in clinical psychology. My research grew from the culmination of these interests. They have led me to research focused on the prevention and treatment of stress-related mental health injury. Why research intoemergency communications? To date, few studies have examined rates of stress-related pathology and subsequent impairment in emergency dispatchers. Our research so far has identified Emergency Dispatchers as an at-risk population for stress-induced...
What led you to the decision to make system-wide improvements to try to improve Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) survival in Salt Lake City? OHCA is one of the leading causes of untimely death in North America, with approximately 400,000 OHCAs per year. This is one disease where EMS care makes a big difference in outcomes. Other EMS systems had shown that they could drive an improvement in outcomes. I thought we could emulate what others have done to optimize outcomes for OHCA victims. But when I became the medical director of the Salt Lake...
Patrick Clark currently serves as the Regional Transport Allocation Center Captain for Monongalia EMS in Morgantown, West Virginia. His team oversees all non-emergent transports for their two local Health Systems along with other facilities within the area. He has worked in EMS for the last 18 years. During this time, he has worked in several roles, including ground and air services along with Critical Care Transport. Along with EMS, he has also worked as a telecommunicator at a 911 system that served a large metropolitan area.
Dr. Chris Olola is the Director of Biomedical Informatics and Research at the Academics, Research & Communications (ARC) Department of the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED).
Jerry Overton
President of the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch® (IAED™), member of the Board of Trustees, and chair of IAED’s Institutional Review Board (IRB)...
Q1. What drew you into research involving stress? The inspiration for this research stemmed from a question that an EMD, one of the authors of the study, asked me. As she finished her shift, she asked, “Have you ever wonder if we make more mistakes in evaluating emergency calls when we work for longer hours? Because in my opinion…” Starting with that question, we planned and developed the study, involving all the Telecommunication Centers in our region [Liguria]. Q2. Your recommendations...
