Greetings. It’s my honor to serve as the Medical Director of the Bureau of Emergency Medical and Trauma Services. My career in EMS started in my hometown of Bettendorf, Iowa, where I served as a volunteer firefighter/EMT on our local fire department – it was a privilege to help take care of our community. I learned the fundamental skills that have allowed me to serve in a wide variety of EMS clinician and administrative leadership roles thus far – it’s been an amazing journey.
I work at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics as an Emergency Medicine and EMS physician where I provide patient care, teach the next generation of clinicians, and conduct research in a variety of topics. In my free time, I love spend time with my family and friends, running and traveling to interesting places within the United States and around the world.
I really enjoy working in the Bureau as we have an outstanding team. We are committed to advancing EMS in our state and region while serving our patients, our providers and the public-at-large!
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The BEMTS staff will be presenting a series of virtual training sessions focused on collecting accurate data and using the data to drive system improvement in your EMS organization. Each session will provide one hour of EMS continuing education and will give you useful skills to use at your own agency when developing your Key Performance Indicators or writing data reports to evaluate your service’s operations. Please join us for any or all sessions and bring your questions for this interactive training. The first session will be held on January 7, 2025, at 7:00 PM via Zoom. Click here to register for the first session.
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The EMS program provides workshops for medical director and service director training, both refresher and introductory courses. Below are the scheduled workshops for 2025.
January 22, 2025 - EMS Medical Director / Service Director Workshop (Introductory)
April 23, 2025 - EMS Medical Director / Service Director Workshop (Refresher)
July 23, 2025 - EMS Medical Director / Service Director Workshop (Introductory)
October 22, 2025 - EMS Medical Director / Service Director Workshop (Refresher)
The Iowa Bureau of Emergency Medical and Trauma Services (BEMTS) has received inquiries concerning devices that are marketed as “anti-choking” or devices that may be utilized in the case of foreign body airway obstruction in the community setting and if such devices could be used by authorized EMS clinicians and EMS service programs within the State of Iowa. Such devices include, but are not limited to, Lifevac® and Dechoker®.
After review of these products, BEMTS has made the following determinations:
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These devices are not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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On April 22, 2024, the FDA transmitted a “safety communication” reporting potential problems with anti-choking devices, actions that the FDA is currently taking, along with recommendations for the general public and health care providers, to include following established choking training and guidance as provided through the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Red Cross (ARC).
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Use of these types of devices is not within the National EMS Scope of Practice or the Iowa Emergency Medical Care Provider Scope of Practice for managing airway obstruction at any provider level.
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These devices are not referenced in the National Model EMS Clinical Guidelines.
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Healthcare organizations like the AHA and others do not endorse these devices.
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There is insufficient research documenting the safety and efficacy of using these devices.
BEMTS does not endorse nor approve the utilization of these devices by the State of Iowa authorized EMS clinicians of any level or by the State of Iowa authorized EMS service programs. Further research and validation are needed to establish credibility and effectiveness in the EMS setting. BEMTS continues to endorse that EMS clinicians and EMS service programs follow the AHA guidelines for managing foreign body airway obstruction that are appropriate to their level of training and authorization.
Apoorva Ramaswamy, MD, Aaron Done, MD PhD, Roberto Solis, MD, Mayuri Srimanth, BS, Lindsay Olinde, MD, and Peter Belafsky, MD, PhD (2023). The efficacy of two commercially available devices for airway foreign body relief: A cadaver study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10278115/
In conjunction with last month as National Disaster Preparedness Month, Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) has released a free checklist for hospitals to ensure they can effectively plan, prepare, and respond to pediatric patients during a disaster. The checklist is organized into three progressive categories that are tailored to varying pediatric volumes and inpatient pediatric capabilities. The checklist was developed by a national team of experts and pilot tested extensively. View the Disaster Checklist.
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In 2025, the State of Iowa will transition from administering a state-approved psychomotor examination for Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) levels to requiring each authorized training program to maintain a Student Minimum Competency (SMC) portfolio, administer a capstone cognitive and psychomotor examination, and evaluate each student's affective domain upon completion.
The SMC and psychomotor examination plans must be submitted to BEMTS. Training programs will also maintain a terminal competency statement for each graduate, signed by the training program manager and the medical director.
This SMC and capstone examination approach is aligned with the established standards of the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) for paramedic and Advanced Emergency Medical Technician (AEMT) education. These standards emphasize tracking skills, age demographics, performance impressions, and comprehensive summative evaluations across all learning domains: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. Although CAAHEP standards primarily apply to paramedic and AEMT education, they reflect best practices that are relevant and beneficial at the EMR and EMT levels. If you have any questions, please contact Brad Vande Lune, EMS Program Director at brad.vandelune@hhs.iowa.gov
Monthly Trauma Program Manager (TPM) Webinar
When: Friday, November 22, 2024, 10:00-11:00 a.m.
Topic: “Needlessly Treated: Evaluation of Prehospital Needle Thoracostomy”
Speaker: Carlos Pelaez, MD, FACS
Program Overview: Needle thoracostomy is a potentially life-saving intervention for tension pneumothorax but may be overused, potentially leading to unnecessary morbidity. This session will explore recently published research in Iowa related to patients that have received a prehospital thoracostomy.
Learning Objective: Review prehospital needle thoracostomy indications, effectiveness, and adverse outcomes.
Continuing Education: Iowa Hospital Association (IHA) Iowa Board of Nursing provider No. 4 will award 1.0 nursing contact hours for this webinar. For nursing contact hours to be offered for individuals, IHA will verify your electronic virtual sign-in and sign-out times, and you must enter your nursing license number on the access registration page. Iowa HHS Bureau of Emergency Medical and Trauma Services will award 1.0 EMS credit hours for this webinar.
Iowa's 2024 Trauma and Preparedness Conference
Thank you to those that attended Iowa's 2024 Trauma and Preparedness Conference on September 10-11. We hope that you were able to learn from multidisciplinary partners to help you provide optimal care to isolated injuries and mass casualty trauma patients. The conference had around 300 physicians, advanced care practitioners, nurses, EMS providers, public health and hospital emergency preparedness professionals in attendance. One of the features of the biennial trauma and preparedness conference is a system for recognizing Iowa's outstanding Level III and Level IV trauma program verifications. The state recognizes the value Level III and IV trauma programs provide to our system. These hospitals are foundational to the successful resuscitation, care and rehabilitation of trauma patients in Iowa. This is the fourth year these awards have been presented to outstanding Level III and IV trauma programs. The Level III trauma care facility of the year was UnityPoint Health Allen Hospital, and the Level IV trauma care facility of the year was MercyOne Clinton Medical Center.
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 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in partnership with the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO), has developed a free course for post-overdose outreach team members and first responders to learn how to use a trauma-informed approach when working with people who have experienced overdose.
This is an online course that aims to equip first responders and post-overdose outreach teams with the background and tools to implement a trauma-informed response when interacting with a person who has experienced an overdose. The approach taught in this course can help improve interactions between teams and persons experiencing overdose and can help team members understand how trauma can impact the people they serve and other people that they interact with in their roles.
First responders can earn continuing education units (CEUs) by enrolling in and taking the full course (5 modules) on trauma-informed approaches for post-overdose outreach teams here: Introduction to Trauma-Informed Care for Post Overdose Outreach Teams (Web Based) – WB4737 - CDC TRAIN - an affiliate of the TRAIN Learning Network powered by the Public Health Foundation
Iowa EMSC, in partnership with five other state EMSC programs, will hold a free virtual symposium November 12 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. CT. “From Celebration to MCI: Pediatric Trauma Response at the Kansas City Chiefs Rally” will address mass casualty response and pediatric trauma treatment at the post-Super Bowl shootings. Speakers will include Troy Armstrong, a paramedic on scene and Morgin Dunleavy, RN, who leads the Emergency Management division at Children's Mercy in Kansas City, Missouri. Two hours of free physician, nursing and EMS credits are provided. Register here. For more information, contact vicki.petersen@hhs.iowa.gov.
 There were 1,057 Law Enforcement AED deployments from the beginning of the AED project in 2021 to the end of 2023. Of the total, 585were classified as rural deployments, and 472were urban.
The count was highest for Polk County at 187 deployments, followed by Johnson and Muscatine counties, respectively.
Polk County accounted for 17.69% of the total deployments.
Across all 89 counties reached, the number of deployments ranged from 1to 187 in any given county.
The project reached 329 cities in Iowa from 2021 to 2023.
There were 196 law enforcement agencies involved. 142 agencies responded to rural incidents, and 73 responded to urban incidents.
Overall, patients in this project had a 22.8% survival rate, with 241 patients surviving total.
November 7-9, 2024 | Des Moines, Iowa CCCU Memorial Convention Center-Iowa Event Center
Registration is OPEN for 34th year and we are very proud of our Statewide EMS Education Conference + Trade Show. Attending the IEMSA Conference is a great way to obtain continuing education. IEMSA is diligent in its efforts to provide a quality continuing education, as well as an immersive experience with EMS Providers from across the state.
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If you need a HOTEL ROOM -- rooms are selling out fast — you can make a reservation in our discounted room blocks -- Discounted HOTEL Block Rates and Online reservation links Click This Link: Conference Hotels
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NEW! Friday BLS "Harm-On-The-Farm" Break-out Sessions
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In-Person Service Director/Medical Director Workshops offered on Thursday — Nov 7 — an Initial Level Workshop and a Refresher Level Workshop.
- Amazing Keynotes this year --
- EMS Response to the 2023 Gaza War
—Oren Wacht—EMT-P, MHA. Ph.D.
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All the Dogs: The Law of EMS Culture
—David Givot, Esq
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Trauma Care: What’s New?
—Michael Kaduce—MPS, NRP
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EMS and Children’s Suicide-A Parents Perspective
—Alma + Brian Brunson, Parental Survivors of Suicide
- Saturday Exhibit Hall Hours are BACK!
We also build in some fun and networking opportunities outside of the classrooms -- with a fun LIVE Band Dance on Friday Night -- featuring the ever popular "The Johnny Holm Band," -- sponsored by MedForce . We also invite our attendees gather at Ricochet on Locust Street for fun, games and networking before the conference 2-Day Education Event kicks off--sponsored by Legacy Vehicles.
The Nationally Recognized "Honoring Our Own Ceremony" is always a moving and important tribute to our fallen heroes. This event will be held in the ballroom from 10:05a-10:55a on Saturday. We invite the family, friends, co-workers and the public to join us in this special ceremony.
The IEMSA Annual Awards Ceremony, held during Lunch on Saturday, recognizes our outstanding providers, services, dispatcher and many more, for their dedication and excellence to serving Iowans in their greatest time of need.
You will be REVITALIZED, secure some CEs, have a little fun and go home ready to continue to serve.
 The Preventing Childhood Injuries Conference will be held on November 14, from 9:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M. in Grinnell, IA. (5.5 nursing CEUs have been approved for this event)
The keynote speaker, Tracy Mehan, is going to be exceptional this year! Tracy leads the Translational Research team for the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital and brings close to 30 years of experience in communications, health education, marketing, and research to her role. In addition, she often serves as an injury prevention expert for mainstream media appearing in print, online, and on-air on such outlets as The Today Show, USA Today, CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.
Tracy's session will focus on Artificial Intelligence & Injury Prevention: A Game Changer or Cause for Concern?
Other topics include:
- Dangers of ATVs and UTVs on public roads
- Water safety and drowning prevention
- Community disaster preparedness and hospital response
- Plant and mushroom poisoning
Registration is online at Overview ⋮ Preventing Childhood Injury Conference ⋮ UnityPoint Health ⋮ Events
Lots of sponsor and exhibitor opportunities as well. If you have any questions, please reach out to Katy Sowden.
 To request content to be added and shared in the BEMTS Newsletter, please send correspondence to the email address below.
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