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Saturday, March 27, 2010

Air Medical Today Episode 12 - EPNetwork

Episode 12 of the Air Medical Today Podcast has been published.  In this episode I interview David Kearns, the Coordinator of the CONCERN Network.  I also check in with Tim Pickering, Vice President of the Association of Air Medical Services, regarding the AAMS Spring Conference in the First Response section.  News & Information and the initial reports from the Hospital Wing crash in Tennessee.

David Kearns is the Clinical Coordinator at Flight for Life Colorado which is based at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado.  He has been a flight nurse since 1981 and has served in several positions at Flight for Life Colorado since 1988.
David has been the Coordinator of the CONCERN Network since the retirement of the late Roseanne Krantz in 2004.  He helped move the CONCERN Network, in conjunction with Rollie Parrish from Flightweb, to the current e-mail system notification system from the older fax-based one in 2000.

David is the current Region II board member of the Association of Air Medical Services and a past board member of the Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association from 1998 to 2002.   He served as president from 2001-2002.  David has delivered presentations on physiologic monitoring, post-of-care technology, prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia, and the history of the CONCERN Network at past Air Medical Transport Conferences and Clinical Midyear Meetings.

He graduated from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska in 1981 with a bachelors in science in nursing and from University of Colorado in 1994 in Denver, Colorado with a masters in nursing.  David lives in Lakewood, Colorado and has interests in things historical, things that fly, fitness, and computer technology.

David will become a regular contributor to the Air Medical Today Podcast where he will provide updates on the CONCERN Network.

Tim Pickering is currently the Vice President and Region III Board Member of the Association of Air Medical Services and the Director of Public Affairs for Air Evac EMS, Inc. in West Plains, Missouri.

Tim is going to be a regular contributor to the Air Medical Today Podcast with a feature called the Commindustry Update where he will provide an overview of trends in the air medical and critical transport community and industry.

I want to extend Air Medical Today's deepest sympathy, thoughts and prayers to the crew, family, and friends of the Hospital Wing program after their tragic crash on March 25, 2010.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Air Medical Today Episode 11 - EPNetwork

Episode 11 of the Air Medical Today Podcast has been published.  In this episode I interview Denise Landis, Chairperson, and Kris Nelson, Co-Director of the Graduate School, with the Medical Transport Leadership Institute in Wheeling, West Virginia.  I also check in with Kathy Nichols, former flight nurse with West Michigan Air Care who recently returned from a medical mission to Haiti in the First Response section.  As always news & information, listener feedback, and soon a special feature covering various aspects of the air medical and critical care transport community in each episode.

Denise Landis, is the Manager, of the Survival Flight Critical Care Transport program at the University of Michigan Health System as well as serving as Chair of the Medical Transport Leadership Institute.  She has been with Survival Flight for 25 years holding the positions of Flight Nurse Specialist, Chief Flight Nurse, and now Manager, Critical Care Transport.  Denise has been the Chairperson of MTLI since it’s inception.

 Denise has been actively involved in local, state and national boards and committees including being one of the founding members of the Michigan State Chapter of AAMS.   She continues involvement with the Michigan Chapter and also with the state chapter of the American Ambulance Association.  Denise also served on the AAMS Board of Directors and is a past president.

She is a graduate of Madonna College in nursing and completed her Masters of Science in Health Administration from Central Michigan University  and resides in Hamburg, Michigan, near Ann Arbor, with her husband Scott.

Kris Nelson is a Flight Nurse Specialist with Survival Flight and also the Co-Director of the MTLI Graduate School.  He has been with Survival Flight since 1987 and joined MTLI after completing the school himself in 2000.

Kris received his diploma as a registered nurse from Mercy School of Nursing in Detroit in 1976.  He worked at various positions in Michigan Washington, and Florida before being hired by the University of Michigan in 1985 where he first worked as a staff nurse in the Emergency Department.  His interest grew for the field of flight nursing and in March of 1987 he met all the qualifications and was hired by Survival Flight.

In 2006, Kris was honored to be a guest speaker at the Japanese Air Medical Conference in Tokyo, Japan. While in Japan, Kris visited a number of cities and spoke with many groups of physicians, nurses and medical transport personnel about his experiences with flight nursing in the United States.

Kris has been married to his wife Michele for 30 years and they have raised two sons, Matthew and Emmett. Michele and Kris currently live in a log home on five wooded acres approximately 30 miles from Ann Arbor. He enjoys working on his property, running, snowboarding, and most importantly spending time with his family.  He has a unique Twitter client that he uses at AMTC.

Kathy Nichols is a retired flight nurse from West Michigan Air Care in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  She joined West Michigan Air Care when the program was formed through the merger of the Borgess and Bronson Hospital helicopter programs in 1993.  She had been a flight nurse for 23 years and served as an emergency department nurse for 20 years prior to her flight nurse career.  She continues serving as an instructor for PALS and ACLS.  Kathy is in the blue scrubs 3rd from the left in the picture.

Kathy’s current goal is traveling independently with various groups for medical care missions in developing countries.  Her recent travels have included Tanzania in November 2009 and Haiti in late February and early March 2010.

She is a graduate of the Borgess School of Nursing and Western Michigan University with degrees in nursing.  Kathy is a past president of the National Flight Nurses Association - Michigan Chapter.  I had the honor and privilege of working with Kathy when I was the President & CEO of West Michigan Air Care from 1993-1998.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Kansas Cyclist Podcast - Episode 17

Episode 17 of the Kansas Cyclist Podcast features a look at the Topeka Community Cycle Project, a community bicycle workshop that will offer cyclists a place to work on their bikes, learn about bicycle repair and maintainable, and even earn a bike of their own.

Randy Rasa and I talk with founder Robert Fitzgerald, a law student at Topeka’s Washburn University, who launched the project this winter. Robert modeled the idea after similar bike co-ops from around the country, which offer cyclists a place to work on their bikes, learn about bicycle repair and maintenance, and even earn a bike of their own through the innovative “earn-a-bike” program, in which a person invests 10 hours volunteering at the shop and earns shop credit. That credit can be turned in for a bicycle of their choosing from the inventory. Then that person works with a shop mechanic to overhaul the bicycle to make it fully functioning — in the process learning how to repair and maintain their bicycle. After the bike passes a safety checklist they can take it with them. At this point the person has invested in the shop and in themselves and has a functioning bicycle for transportation. If they run into any mechanical issues with the bicycle in the future, they have the skills to repair it and they have a space at the shop and access to the tools necessary to complete the repairs.

When the Topeka Community Cycle Project officially opens this spring, it will be the only such community bike shop in the state of Kansas. They’re currently accepting donations of bicycles, components, tires, tools, accessories — basically anything bicycle-related, they can find a use for. You can contact them via email at topeka@cycleproject.org, via their web site, cycleproject.org, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

For this episode’s “On The Scene” segment, we’re doing something a different. This time out, the scene is a hospital bed, where we talk with Chris Love, who suffered a broken leg and broken arm in a bicycle accident in late February. We bring you this story not because there’s anything really unusual in Chris’s story (other than, perhaps, his incredibly positive attitude and determination to get back on the bike), but because this type of accident — in Chris’s case, a wheel slipping on a wet board on an innocuous-looking bridge on an easy paved trail, with no cars or other cyclists involved — happens more often than we care to admit.  Even for someone like Chris — a fit and experienced mountain biker, with a well-maintained bicycle, riding on familiar trails — things can happen quickly, with devastating consequences. Makes you think.

Chris is facing a long period of rehab, but he’s looking forward to riding again. You’ll want to listen to his story, and perhaps hit him up with a few words of encouragement at chris1281982@gmail.com or on Facebook.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Air Medical Today - Episode 10

Episode 10 of the Air Medical Today Podcast has been published.  In this episode I interview Dr. Daniel Hankins, Medical Director of Mayo Clinic Medical Transport and current President of the Association of Air Medical Services and Dawn Mancuso, the Executive Director & CEO of AAMS.  In the First Response section of the podcast I check in with David Kearns regarding the discontinuation of the Alaris MedSystem III Multi-Channel Infusion Pump by CareFusion and some grass-roots work that he is doing in response.

Dr. Hankins has been serving as the Medical Director of the Mayo Clinic Medical Transport since 1991 and as the President of AAMS since October 2009.  He also has been serving as an Emergency Physician Consultant with the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Mayo Clinic since 1991.  Dan is boarded in both Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine and did his training at the University of Minnesota.  He attended medical school at the University of Pittsburgh and did his undergraduate work at George Washington University in Washington, DC in Anthropology.

Dr. Hankins served as the Chairperson of the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems from 1997-2000 and the Chairperson of the Minnesota Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board from 2000-2004

Dan is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and lives in Oronoco, Minnesota with his wife, Joan who is a flight nurse.  They have 6 children and step-children and 6 grandchildren.  Joan and he also have their own rural cat rescue shelter with 13 cats on their 6 acre property.

Dawn Mancuso is the Executive Director and CEO of the Association of Air Medical Services, where she has been responsible for overseeing the association’s move to the Washington, DC area and transitioning the association’s structure and services to meet the industry’s changing needs.  She also serves as executive director and chief executive officer for the MedEvac Foundation International.

Dawn received her CAE (Certified Association Executive) designation from the American Society of Association Executives  or ASAE in 1992.  She has an undergraduate degree in International Relations from Georgetown University and a Masters Degree in Association Management from George Washington University.  Dawn has been an active member of ASAE and the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives or GWSAE and is a past member of the Board of Directors of ASAE.

Dawn is a past winner of GWSAE’s Monument Award, ASAE’s Diamond Award of Excellence, and the Associations Advance America Summit Award.  She is a frequent presenter at association management conferences, and has been published in magazines such as Association, Executive Update, and other non-profit management publications. She is the author of one of the chapters of Professional Practices in Association Management, a textbook for those in the association management profession. In March of 2001, she was named a Fellow of the American Society of Association Executives.

Dawn has worked in the association management field since 1982. She has held positions with other associations such as the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds, the Educational Dealers and Suppliers Association International, the National School Supply and Equipment Association, and the International Chiropractic Association.

In her spare time, she has volunteered as an usher for the Washington Shakespeare Theatre, and has served on the board of several community non-profits, including PAL, an organization that promotes the human-animal bond through sponsoring pet therapy visits to nursing homes, veterans homes and hospitals, the Association Foundation Group (AFG), and MetroPets, an organization created to promote the adoption of homeless animals and the well-being of companion animals in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area.

In the First Response section of the podcast I check in with David Kearns who is the Clinical Coordinator for Flight For Life Colorado, the Region II Director for the Association of Air Medical Services, and the Coordinator of the CONCERN Network.  I discuss with David the recent announcement regarding the discontinuation of the Alaris MedSystem III Multi-Channel Infusion Pump by CareFusion and some grass-roots work that he is doing in response.