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AEDR 2018 Vol. 6 Issue 1

Welcome Message from the Editor-in-Chief

Isabel Gardett, PhD

Apr 03, 2018|AEDR 2018 Vol. 6 Issue 1|Editor's Message

Emergency dispatchers are no strangers to misunderstandings about what they do. Even the U.S. government classifies emergency dispatchers as "clerks," rather than as the protective service professionals they are. In research on emergency dispatch, we see plenty of misunderstanding as well. Mostly, it comes in the form of narrowed focus. When people talk about emergency dispatch research, they generally mean they're studying one of two things times or cardiac arrests. The vast majority of emergency dispatch research over the past twenty years has focused on one of these two topics. Yet as...

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The "Four-Second Rule" for Identifying the Active Silent 911 Caller

Heidi Kevoe-Feldman, PhD, C. Blair Sutherland

Apr 03, 2018|AEDR 2018 Vol. 6 Issue 1|Original Research

With advances in wireless technology, the volume of unintentional calls, or misdials, to 911 call centers has steadily increased over the past 10 years. While call centers have been working to manage call volume, there is very little systematic research on how to develop policy for handling Active Silent calls where callers may be unable to verbally communicate. The primary objective in this study was to first establish how dispatchers manage nuisance calls, and then provide a systematic way of determining how dispatchers can maximize their opportunities...

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Multi-Protocol Discipline Agencies Use Different Protocols To Process Traffic Accidents

Chris Knight, Christopher Olola, PhD, Greg Scott, MBA, EMD-QI, Isabel Gardett, PhD, Jeff J. Clawson, MD

Apr 03, 2018|AEDR 2018 Vol. 6 Issue 1|Original Research

Traffic incidents (collisions and crashes) are among the most common call types handled by Emergency Communication Centers (ECCs). They are also among the most complex call types because they represent such a range of possible situations. ECCs that handle calls in multiple disciplines (medical, fire, and law enforcement) may have multiple protocols available for handling traffic incidents because the Medical Priority Dispatch System, Police Priority Dispatch System, and Fire Priority Dispatch System each contains its own traffic and transportation incident protocol...

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Evaluation Variability Of Emergency Medical Calls Among Emergency Medical Communication Centers In Liguria, Italy

Andrea Furgani, MD, Christopher Olola, PhD, Lavinia Ferraro, EMD-Q, Salvatore Esposito, MD, Stefano Ferlito, MD, Fabio Ferrari, MD, Roberto Sanna, MD, Silvano Ruffoni, MD, Francesco Bermano, MD

Apr 03, 2018|AEDR 2018 Vol. 6 Issue 1|Original Research

The evaluation of emergency calls received by Emergency Medical Communication Centers (EMCCs) is the first and basic step for activating the chain of survival. It also represents an essential prerequisite for optimal response to and management of critical patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the introduction of a single, structured, and standardized emergency medical dispatch system provided a more uniform evaluation of all emergency calls among five EMCCs in Liguria, Italy. The study retrospectively examined the assigned...

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Weapons Reported On-Scene by Callers to Emergency Police Dispatch

Meghan Broadbent, MS, Chris Knight, David Warner, Nathan Williams, BS, Greg Scott, MBA, EMD-QI, Jeff J. Clawson, MD, Isabel Gardett, PhD, Christopher Olola, PhD

Apr 03, 2018|AEDR 2018 Vol. 6 Issue 1|Original Research

Providing information about possible weapons on scene is an essential objective of police dispatching and clearly valuable to officer safety. However, up to now, no information has been available about how often callers report weapons as "involved or mentioned" in an incident, what types of weapons are most commonly reported, or which incident types most commonly have reported weapons associated with them. The primary objective of this study is to determine which types of weapons are reported most often and on which Police Priority Dispatch System (PPDS®)...

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Research Spotlight: Marc Gay

AEDR Editorial Team

Apr 03, 2018|AEDR 2018 Vol. 6 Issue 1|Research Spotlight

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...

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