Archive for September, 2009

So last night was the premiere of NBC’s new medic drama called Trauma. When the show was first announced I was pretty critical about the promo shots. Accuracy, sadly, did not seem to be on the agenda.

There was quite a bit of inaccuracy. During the opening scenes of a Paramedic providing EMD information to a caller while enroute to a call was a sign. The effects for the helicopter crash and tanker accident were impressive… but then you have this character Rabbit (nicknamed Captain Versed) snowballing a patient in the middle of the highway (who then goes into cardiac arrest) before amputating a drunk’s finger with his personal car on the ride home after work. Really?

I mean really???

Nicholas Cage as Frank Pierce in Bringing Out the Dead was a freaking SAINT compared to this guy!

The highlight of the night wasn’t produced by NBC at all. The highlight was the social media event known as Medic Cast Live. With over 100 live listeners, the show premiered with Jamie Davis, Chris Montera, and Greg Friese casually discussed the show while the chatroom was full of gems such as:

“Capt. Versed on #traumashow is too much. Dose ‘em and leave ‘em” – Podmedic
“No one puts Rabbit in the corner” – msparamedic

Yet the real highlight of the evening was when Aimee Garcia who is the actress portraying helicopter pilot Maris Benez called in to the show.

“What you guys do is really really incredible and are the soldiers of everyday,” she said, “We’re going to try and do our best to do you guys justice and have been writing about the training on NBC’s Trauma Blog.”

She conversed with the hosts of the show for about five minutes, and even said that she had taken notes during the conversation to pass on to the other actors for better accuracy.

“We’re doing our best to balance it out and to portray you guys as best as we can,” she said… and more importantly I believe her based on the amount of training she has gone through to take on this role. As usual… I blame the writers.

In the end… I can look past the medical inaccuracies, the insanely improbable incidents, and even the cheesy drama… at least until episode 6 which is the halfway mark for the series.

If they can’t get it down by then… no amount of amiodarone pushed while performing one handed CPR during asystole is going to revive it.

EMS Garage has the Trauma Premiere Show Talkcast up for listening or download!

Here are some blog posts from EMS Bloggers last week that I found as being essential gear for iPhone users, an interesting insight into why healthcare may cost what it does, and what happens when patients are just too damn efficient…

• Jim Hoff shared this list of 26 iPhone/iTouch Applications for EMS Personnel. Of course… that would imply that EMS personnel make enough money to own an iPhone…
• Kevin MD asks if the majority of excessive medical care happens in the ER. Since the ER is also the place where the majority of uninsured patients are seen, that might explain alot about the why the cost of healthcare is what it is…
• Dave Statter has the a story about a St. Petersburg Rescue crew driving over the patient they were dispatched to attend to. Honestly, I can see it happening since I don’t ever remember a patient calling 911 and then meeting me at the station or the street corner before I got the call. Maybe if more patients would be so efficient, our response times would be way down!

And finally…

• Tonight will be the premiere of NBC’s new medical drama, Trauma. There will be an Online Premiere Party hosted by the most well known EMS Podcasters and Bloggers tonight at 9pm EDT at http://mediccastlive.com. If you’re going to watch the show, listen in to the commentary and join the conversation of the show afterwards!

Join Leading EMS Podcasters for Commentary and a Post-Premiere Call-in Show

PLOVER, WI September 25, 2009 – Join leading EMS Podcasters Jamie Davis, Chris Montera, Greg Friese and others in watching and discussing the premiere of the new NBC show Trauma. Browse to http://mediccastlive.com at 9 p.m. EDT/ 8p.m. CST on Monday September 28, 2009 for live conversation and commentary.

Trauma, the dramatic new show about paramedics in San Francisco promises to be an action packed exploration of the profession and the stresses it places on relationships.

During the premiere, using the online platform TalkShoe, Jamie, Chris, Greg and other podcasters and EMS bloggers will be discussing the action, plot, and EMS technique of the show and its cast. Listeners will be able to text chat with one another and the hosts as the premiere unfolds.

After the show Jamie Davis, an RN, paramedic, and host of the MedicCast (http://mediccast.com) – the highest ranked EMS podcast – will take calls from listeners. Jamie Davis is watching the premiere of Trauma because “I am looking for a program that will portray the real issues in EMS while inspiring a new generation to join the profession as previous shows like Emergency inspired me to become a paramedic.”

Greg Friese, a paramedic and co-host of the EMSEduCast podcast (http://emseducast.com) reports, “I want Trauma to be authentic and respectful of EMS. Like many EMS professionals I am excited and skeptical about Trauma’s potential. I am excited to watch and discuss Trauma with an international audience.”

Chris Montera, a paramedic chief and host of the EMS Garage podcast (http://emsgarage.com) shares, “EMS professionals would love for Trauma to succeed and draw attention to the work we do, but if it is a miserable failure we have no problem calling it DOA!”

Go to http://mediccastlive.com at 9 p.m. EDT/ 8p.m. CST on Monday September 28, 2009 for the live conversation, commentary, and critique with the professionals

Four years ago today I was travelling with a task force of 10 ambulances to North East Texas for Hurricane Rita relief operations. That experience didn’t solely provide me with an intimate knowledge about what works and doesn’t work in a disaster response, it didn’t just give me new found appreciation for Chef Boyardee, and it didn’t only give me the opportunity to further develop myself as a leader. It also gave me my first experience with the power of Social Media.

The Sabine County Letters

It really started innocently enough. A few e-mails passed back and forth between my company’s senior leadership regarding our progress.

I took the initiative to take those initial emails and provide more in depth narratives as to what was going on. While ideally it would have been a daily occurrence, working in a disaster area does not guarantee that you would have internet access. In the early days of the deployment there were some nights that Doc Croc and I would drive 2 hours to a town with cellular service to send the message from “The Range“. When I would finally get signal, I would also receive emails of encouragement and support from people throughout the company who had been forwarded my emails by others. The act of the creation of that media with the feedback that was therefore fostering a conversation is exactly what Social Media is all about.

In the end it consisted of 15 e-mails over the course of the 25 day deployment. Collectively I refer to them as The Sabine County Letters, but what they really were was my first foray into Social Media and is what I point to as the catalyst to get more involved in the practice.

Taking It To The Next Level

I am unequivocally a Social Media Evangelist. I believe in the power of Social Media to have the power to change people’s individual lives. I also believe that the same power could be utilized by First Responder Agencies to not only improve the preparedness levels and disaster response outcomes in their communities, but to also change the public’s perception of who we are and what we actually do. While I could sit here and pontificate on these points as I already have done, there is a point where we need to evolve and go to the next level.

In order to help Agencies and personally get to the next level I have co-founded PIO Social Media Training in a partnership with acclaimed educator Greg Friese of EPS411. Our mission is simple: empower Agencies to effectively engage in the creation of Social Media to achieve their own unique goals.

We are going to do this through different educational opportunities utilizing the very format that we are promoting. Our educational offerings currently include an email based Social Media Bootcamp for individuals and Agencies to help them get started using Social Media as well as 5 Reasons and Methods For PIOs To Develop and Distribute Social Media Webinars. Future offerings will include a Guide To Social Media Policies For Responder Agencies and The Social Media PIO Handbook.

Since Social Media is about the ability to have conversation, we also will be writing articles on the PIO Social Media Training Blog, you can find us on Twitter @piosmtraining, and also on our PIO Social Media Training Facebook Page.

It’s time for First Responder Agencies to become more involved with their communities effectively. Social Media is a tool that can deliver those results.

Learn how to do it at PIO Social Media Training.

Read the EMS Magazine article on The Role Of Social Media In EMS