Birds of a Feather Flock Together

"Are you going to Eagles?"
     This simple inquiry from a colleague initially received a quizzical look from me until he elaborated that he was referring to the EMS State of the Sciences Conference in Dallas, TX, run by the U.S. Metropolitan Municipalities EMS Medical Directors consortium. Although I had heard of this annual conclave of the nation's top EMS physicians, I had never attended. Purposefully, it's never advertised and people usually only hear about it by word of mouth.

     But the question got me thinking--how could this conference be different from other national EMS conferences? A number of well-recognized EMS medical directors regularly speak at other venues during the year. Other than having these docs present en masse, for what reason would this unannounced event receive such nationwide buzz? I decided to find the answer to this question by exploring the "not-so-secret" phenomenon that has simply become known as the "Gathering of Eagles."

On a Wing and a Prayer...
     While the Eagles assembly has gained notoriety for offering a snapshot of the most topical matters affecting EMS, it is a fairly recent invention and one that came about by chance. In 1998, Dr. Paul Pepe, the soon-to-be commonwealth emergency medical director for the state of Pennsylvania, was called on by field providers to put on a state-of-the-art educational offering that would challenge the status quo in EMS care. The goal was to create a venue where leading EMS physicians could exchange ideas regarding the state of prehospital care and system operations and let EMS personnel, managers and medical directors, plus anyone else who was interested, eavesdrop on the proceedings. Formerly an assistant to EMS medical directors in Seattle, WA, and later an EMS system director himself for 14 years in Houston, TX, Pepe called upon his network of colleagues to meet this challenge.

     By chance, Dr. Ray Fowler, the original program director of the Basic Trauma Life Support (BTLS) Program, and Dr. Jeff Clawson, the developer of emergency medical dispatch (EMD), were both coming to Pittsburgh three weeks later. Pepe had the beginnings of a faculty for his impromptu get-together. Within two days, he managed to recruit many innovative EMS medical directors from several U.S. cities, including Drs. Marshal Isaacs from San Francisco, CA, Dave Persse from Houston, TX, Jim Dunford from San Diego, CA, Ed Racht from Austin, TX, and Paula Willoughby from Chicago, IL. Within a week, Pepe had arranged the first "EMS State of the Science: Evolution and Revolution" meeting. Despite its last-minute organization, most of the blinded evaluations said the same thing: "Best meeting I have ever attended!"

     So, how is Eagles different? After researching past gatherings, I realized that this would be an experience like none other. Imagine, if you will, approximately 350 EMS educators, managers, chiefs, administrators and physicians sitting with rapt attention through two days of presentations from some of the best clinical minds in the industry. And these sessions are not for the long-winded or unprepared. Succinct and to the point, no presentation runs longer than 15 minutes.

Eye of the Eagle: Day 1
     The 2006 conference agenda departed slightly from that of previous years in that the topics were grouped into "mini-symposiums." Pepe, the program director, opened with a keynote sermon, Anachronistic Catastrophes, a thesis on why disasters have become worse and will become even more destructive in the future. This set the stage for Dr. Jullette Saussy, director of EMS for New Orleans, who opened up the first morning's mini-symposium titled The Big Blow of 2005: A Mini-Symposium on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Saussy gave a powerful overview of New Orleans EMS (NOEMS) tribulations. In her presentation, she detailed how NOEMS worked hard to maintain service to its community in the face of the destruction brought on by both the storm and the disintegration of the city's protective levee infrastructure. She also referenced the chaos wrought by local, state and federal agency infighting and offered advice gleaned from the ordeal to other system leaders: "If someone says, 'We are from the government and we are here to help,' check their shoes. If they are wearing loafers, they are not there to help."