EMS MAGAZINE Celebrating 35 Years of Service

     For 35 years, EMS Magazine has proudly served the EMS industry. During that time, there have been many changes in the world of prehospital care, but at the same time, the more things change, the more they stay the same. While preparing content for this issue, the editorial staff spent hours reviewing back issues and the one thing that became clear is that many of the problems that plague EMS today are the same as those the industry faced in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As we celebrate the 35th anniversary of EMS Magazine, we renew our commitment to serve the industry by focusing on topics that directly impact the lives of EMS providers and patients. As you will see from the magazine covers featured on the cover of this issue and on the following pages, we have reported on every major industry development over the past 35 years and will continue to do so as we move into 2008. Within this special anniversary section, you will find a discussion of the major events to impact EMS over the last 35 years, a timeline of EMS history and a tribute to some of the founding fathers of EMS. We hope you enjoy this celebration of the EMS profession.

The 1960s & 1970s: The Birth of Modern-Day EMS
     You don't usually think of a publication as a "pioneer," but when Deborah Carver and Carol Summer, two San Fernando Valley, CA, businesswomen, premiered the first edition of EMS Magazine in 1972, emergency medical services, in its modern form, was only six years old.

     Eugene Nagel, MD, a physician long retired from the University of Miami and Miami Fire Department, was one of the magazine's original editorial advisory board members. He clearly remembers his ongoing argument with Dr. Peter Safar about the significance of the new technique called CPR in the provision of emergency care.

     "The thesis was that the 'white paper' that came out in the early 1960s woke the U.S. to the need for EMS, but I didn't think it caused more than a ripple," he says. "I also didn't think that funeral homes getting out of the EMS business was a major force for creating modern EMS. The major force, I felt, was CPR, and that's what Peter Safar and I argued about.

     "CPR really started in 1960," says Nagel. "It was developed at Johns Hopkins and taught to Boston Fire Department's rescue personnel. Two cardiologists-Leonard Scherlis and Don Dembo-from the Maryland Heart Association started teaching it, and then the American Heart Association took over and became the main promoter of CPR."

     In 1972, Nagel was asked to write a monthly column for EMS Magazine on subjects he thought would interest paramedics. The response was almost zero, he says, until he wrote about whether there should be SWAT paramedics.

     "I came out against the concept, and I immediately got crucified," he says. "We finally had a debate that resulted in many pages devoted to whether paramedics should cross-train as police officers."

     In 1973, the EMS Systems Act was first proposed, but was vetoed by President Richard Nixon. About 1973, says Nagel, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided $15 million to 44 locations around the country to promote the 9-1-1 system.

     EMS has come a long way since the 1970s, says advisory board member Ken Bouvier, NREMT-P. Bouvier, immediate past president of NAEMT and administrative liaison for New Orleans EMS, got his start in 1974 as a volunteer for a small community in Louisiana.

     "At that time, few places were offering EMT classes," he says. "It only took 80 hours to be an EMT-Basic, and a lot of the people who were becoming EMTs and paramedics were former Vietnam medical corpsmen. I came from a fire department that just required us to have first aid training. When I overheard a police chief and a firefighter talking about whether they should start using that new technique called CPR, I decided to go to EMT school, because I realized we needed to know what we were doing."