Medic One - Seattle Fire Department with Andrew Latimer

In this conversation I talk with Andrew Latimer. Andrew is an Acting Assistant Professor in the the Department of Emergency Medicine. He is involved with quality improvement, education, and clinical and operations research in Emergency Medical Services including involvement with Seattle Fire Medic One, King County EMS, and Airlift Northwest. His research interests are in the pre-hospital care of critically ill and injured patients, pre-hospital airway management, and air medical retrieval medicine.

In this episode we look at the concepts of 'measure and improve' which have proven to make Seattle one of the world's leading institutions on cardiac arrest survival.  Their main domains of practice around out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and advanced airway management (inclusive of drug-assisted intubation).

The Medic One Program began in 1970 when the first group of firefighters were trained as paramedics in cooperation with Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington. Since then, the Medic One Program has gained notoriety due to the training and pre-hospital emergency patient care paramedics deliver within the community. Medic One provides the community with Advanced Life Support (ALS) activities that, in the past, could only be performed by physicians. In addition to responding to medical emergencies, medic units respond to all working fires, hazardous materials and rescue responses.

I hope you enjoy this episode with a fascinating clinician & individual.