NHTSA Hosts EMS Agenda 2050 National Implementation Forum
Leaders from EMS, healthcare and public health gathered to discuss the future of EMS and how to create people-centered systems of care
At a forum in September in Washington, speakers challenged EMS leaders in the audience to begin making the changes necessary to achieve a truly people-centered EMS system.
“Doing things that are truly people-centered will take hard work and create bruised egos,” said Andy Gienapp, director of the Wyoming Office of EMS. “But that’s our challenge. Stop doing things because they are convenient.”
Gienapp served as a member of the EMS Agenda 2050 Technical Expert Panel, the group charged with taking ideas and feedback from hundreds of contributors and turning them into a vision for the future. That vision, EMS Agenda 2050, will be released later this year.
Other speakers at the forum included Ted Delbridge, MD, who served as the principal investigator for the original EMS Agenda for the Future more than two decades ago; Art Kellermann, MD, dean of the Uniformed Services University medical school; and Bill Atkinson, PhD, a veteran hospital executive who started his career as a paramedic.
“It’s our job to get this right,” Atkinson said. “It’s not an option.”
News coverage of the EMS Agenda 2050 National Implementation Forum: