Back from EMS Expo 2008...

[John E]

literally, I just got home from 3 days in sunny Las Vegas.

Had a good time, went to some good CE classes, met some nice people, saw some cool stuff at the trade show.

Rid, you'll be glad to know that there is a growing movement towards some of the improvements that you've been talking/writing about here on EMT Life amongst some of the movers and shakers of EMS education. I got to watch/listen to a classic "because it's the protocol" vs what you really should do to treat a patient argument after a great class on Spinal Immobilisation.

Forgot to mention that our own Ray Kemp was given an award for his outstanding EMS photograph, Ray got one of those giant checks and some merchandise? I think? from the folks at EMS magazine and 5.11 Tactical clothing. He'll correct me if I'm wrong about the merchandise. And of course, we all got to see and hear Randy Mantooth talk about his days on the set of Emergency! and some great history of how EMS really came into existence not so many years ago.

Good stuff.

John E.

 

[mycrofft]

Randy Mantooth!? Gawldarners!

Glad you had a good visit to LV. Any URL's to pass on?B)

 

[Ridryder911]

Sounds like a good time, would like to go back to one; but I have too many I am attending to keep up with new info and keep my certs current. Glad to see some of the VIP's are beginning to share the importance of change.

R/r 911

 

[scottmcleod]

literally, I just got home from 3 days in sunny Las Vegas.

...

Good stuff.

John E.

Awesome!

Do you know if they're going to podcast any of the CE lectures, and/or did you take any good photos for those of us who can't/couldn't go?

(I'm not saying post them now, if you just got home, but just curious if there is...)

-S

 

[John E]

Yes and no...

I'll post some URL's in the next day or so for some good sources of info but there is no podcasting or CD's or DVD's available of any of the classes that I know of.

A lot of the material presented is apparently either copyrighted or considered to be proprietary so no recordings were being made that I know of.

Given that most of the CE classes were being taught by the authors/co-authors of many of the EMS textbooks out there, I can understand a publisher not wanting their information given away.

There were and are a fair number of online CE programs out there, some of whom were at the trade show, I didn't pick up any info on them cause I didn't need to but I'll try and post some links from the Expo list of vendors.

My only complaint, given the huge number of EMTs in the U.S., the turn out was low. I'd love to see a count of how many working EMTs were in attendance, most of the folks I saw were either supervisors, educators, etc.

On the plus side, that meant that we had the opportunity to speak with some of the folks responsible for a lot of the things happening in EMS today directly.

I don't know if I'll go to the next one in Atlanta but anyone who can get there, should really make the effort, the freebies at the trade show were almost worth the price of admission...;^)

John E.

 

[mycrofft]

I hope you touted up EMTLIFE!

So much can be learned through interaction with other attendees, I hope some are going to dial in ths website.

 

[el Murpharino]

So what new "timesaving" equipment do we have to look forward to in the near future?

 

[John E]

Interesting that...

not a single person I spoke with at the Expo had ever heard of EMTLife.

That includes people from the NREMT, the NAEMT, 3 or 4 of the instructors I had classes with, and the people at several of the trade show booths I spoke with. No one I spoke with brought up the topic of online forums that I can recall, I brought them up, including EMTLife numerous times in conversations. I did give the URL out to a few people.

As for timesaving, didn't see anything that dealt with saving time directly, I'm sure that a lot of the equipment manufacturers would claim otherwise but that wasn't a criteria for anything that I looked at. If anything, EMS is too time oriented in my opinion. Trying to save some mythical amount of time is at least one of, if not the most critical reason behind the number of deaths amongst EMS personnel.

I did see some good examples of how taking MORE time in evaluation and god forbid, diagnosis, can not only save lives but can also help to eliminate wasteful and expensive procedures from being done.

More to come when I get all my swag unpacked...

John E.

 

[KEVD18]

you wont see many field level emts at that sort of thing from out of state. tough to afford a week long junket to vegas on a street emts pay(pennies above minimum wage in some areas).

the brass are there for a "fact finding mission" probably paid for by the company.

 

[John E]

Yep...

and it's a shame too cause the CE classes alone are well worth going for.

I was surprised at how few local EMT types were there. Obviously I didn't meet or count everyone but I didn't notice a lot of Nevada or California cities on the name badges I did read. They were there, but not in the numbers I would have expected given how cheap it is to get to and stay in Las Vegas these days.

John E.

 

[LucidResq]

Was Zoll there?

At the Fire Rescue International convention they had CPR dummies that measured the effectiveness of your compressions based on depth, rhythm, rate, etc. Pretty cool... I won a t-shirt that says "Occasionally I shock people."

I don't know though... the FRI convention kind of made me nauseous... seeing the dark, highly-commercial side of public safety. I realize it's an industry and there's money to be made... but when you have busty blonde models wearing low-cut fake bunker pants and little else selling god-knows-what.....

Wish I could have afforded some of the classes.

 

[karaya]

literally, I just got home from 3 days in sunny Las Vegas.

Had a good time, went to some good CE classes, met some nice people, saw some cool stuff at the trade show.

Rid, you'll be glad to know that there is a growing movement towards some of the improvements that you've been talking/writing about here on EMT Life amongst some of the movers and shakers of EMS education. I got to watch/listen to a classic "because it's the protocol" vs what you really should do to treat a patient argument after a great class on Spinal Immobilisation.

Forgot to mention that our own Ray Kemp was given an award for his outstanding EMS photograph, Ray got one of those giant checks and some merchandise? I think? from the folks at EMS magazine and 5.11 Tactical clothing. He'll correct me if I'm wrong about the merchandise. And of course, we all got to see and hear Randy Mantooth talk about his days on the set of Emergency! and some great history of how EMS really came into existence not so many years ago.

Good stuff.

John E.

Thanks for the mention John! No, I didn't get one of those giant checks (damn! ). But I did get my whole trip for free including food, airfare and hotel along with a really nice plaque with my winning photo on it. I also will get some free 5.11 gear and an all expense paid trip to California to attend a 5.11 tactical gear photo shoot for one of their catalogs. I have a lot of family in California so that will come in handy.

I thought it was a good show and I was able to get some business accomplished with some of my publishers who were also on hand for the show.

Thanks for all the support!

Ray

 

[John E]

I knew...

you'd straighten me out. Coulda sworn you got one of the giant checks.

Well, congrats anyway, saw the photograph and it's a good one.

I was a newspaper photographer in my previous life, still do some shooting on occasion.

Let me know when your California trip is, maybe we can meet up.

John E.

 

[mycrofft]

At the big shows, it's a teeter-totter about line people

Too many and the convention bankrollers/vendors pull out because they are aiming for the bosses and the purchasing dept, not peons. Too few and it is just a trade show. 'Way too few and it shuts down for lack of interest.
Next time, maybe EMTLIFE can field someone with business cards and act as an online forum for attendees to compare notes and network? (Yeah, I know, there's better things to do at night during a conference in Las Vegas!).

Then again I tried that for CERT LA at the Sacramento emergency preparedness conference in 2007. They got their biggest audience ever, but of about 100 cards I distributed and a couple of workshops I talked it up at, only about 28 virtualy dropped in. Well, cards are cheap.

 

[scottmcleod]

A lot of the material presented is apparently either copyrighted or considered to be proprietary so no recordings were being made that I know of.
...
Given that most of the CE classes were being taught by the authors/co-authors of many of the EMS textbooks out there, I can understand a publisher not wanting their information given away.
...
I don't know if I'll go to the next one in Atlanta but anyone who can get there, should really make the effort, the freebies at the trade show were almost worth the price of admission...;^)

John E.

True! Though PHTLS podcasted their "Trauma: A-Z" lectures from the JEMS convention from a year or two back. Those are some of my favourite podcasts to listen to (both because the lecturers are hilarious, and the content is good.)

Maybe we'll see more stuff like that appearing, where companies realise that if some of their lectures (not all) get podcasted, it could drum up interest in their product... (chicken before the egg?)

 

[mycrofft]

How about a virtual convention? Getting off subject.

Hm? Bulletinboards, scheduled presentations, everything but the catering and the freebies. Maybe sponsors would provide some sort of freebies, like paypal gift certifs or something?
Could even slop over into Second Life as public radio's "Science Friday" does.Now THAT's off subject.

 

[EMT-P633]

Congrats Karaya, hey, could you post the winning picture on here for us please?

 

[karaya]

Congrats Karaya, hey, could you post the winning picture on here for us please?

Thanks!

Here is the pic:

 

[scottmcleod]

Sweet shot!

(Side note/question from a fellow 'tographer: What are the legalities with regard to EMS photography? How do you deal with releases, etc...? Do you follow in a POV, or do you end up travelling with the dispatched rig?)

(Feel free to reply via PM if you want)

 

[karaya]

Sweet shot!

(Side note/question from a fellow 'tographer: What are the legalities with regard to EMS photography? How do you deal with releases, etc...? Do you follow in a POV, or do you end up travelling with the dispatched rig?)

(Feel free to reply via PM if you want)

Thanks Scott. I do both "trolling" and riding with crews (usually a supervisor). I'll PM you with a little info about legalities, etc.

I'm doing a pre-conference lecture on EMS scene photography at next year's IAFC Fire Rescue Med conference in Las Vegas. It will address EMS provider policy development, legal issues, as well as training and marketing aspects within the EMS organization. I also wrote an article in the July 2008 issue of JEMS magazine that addresses a few of the points I mention above.

Thanks again!

Ray