Medic2Medic Podcast

Episode 79: Dr. Spiro is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of ReelDx. He is the former Fellowship Director and Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, Doernbecher Children's Hospital. Using real patient video, he led efforts to raise 5 million dollars of philanthropy to open the first Pediatric Emergency Department at OHSU in 2009. He received his MD at...

Episode 78: Cary Area EMS's own Christian Heinrich joins me this week on the podcast. Christian has over 20 years of service with Cary Area EMS starting as a volunteer and moving up the career ladder to his current position as Division Chief. Christian was not heading towards a career in EMS, but like so many of us he got the "bug". Christian talks about his early days in EMS and volunteering in V...

Episode 77: Gene Starzenski is the Producer and Director of the documentary Freedom House. Freedom House Ambulance was started in Pittsburgh and was the precursor to the City of Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS. Before Gene produced this wonderful documentary, he served as the Medic Advisor and Set Medic on hundreds of television shows and 50 films. Some of his films include The Dark Knight Rises, Transfo...

Episode 76: Did you ever look in the mirror and say enough is enough? This week Daniel Mills, a 14 year veteran of the fire and EMS world tells his story about looking in the mirror. Daniel is the founder of 911 Buddy Check. Daniel is a veteran of the US Navy where he served as a Fleet Marine Force Corpsman with the United States Marine Corp for 8 years. He is currently a Flight Medic in Alabama....

Episode 75: FBI, City of Pittsburgh EMS, diving the murky waters of the 3 Rivers and EMS are some of the topics that are on the podcast this week. Kurt Gardner has been in EMS for over 30 years. He became an EMT in 1985 and was a volunteer for Medical Rescue Team South in the south suburbs of Pittsburgh PA. He became a Paramedic in 1987 and was hired as a Paramedic by the City of Pittsburgh in 198...

Episode 74: Jean Bail is the Director, Disaster Medicine and Management at Philadelphia University. Jean is a dedicated teacher, educator, paramedic, nurse and mentor. If it was not for Jean, this podcaster would of never graduated from college. It was a little EMS program at Hahnemann University, where our paths crossed. I was struggling as a college student up to this point. I was about to start...

Episode 73: Jason Friesen is the Founder and Director of Trek Medics International. Trek Medics International is a non-profit, humanitarian organization dedicated to developing prehospital and emergency care in low and middle income countries. Jason is a paramedic with entrepreneurial spirit and has been working in international development since 2003. He is originally from the NYC-area and has sp...

Episode 72: It is the night before Halloween and simulation is the name of the game. Is practicing and pretending is a good way to learn? We will find out. Amar Patel is the Director of the Center for Innovative Learning at WakeMed Health and Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is responsible for integrating technology-based education to include human patient simulation, healthcare gaming, an...

Episode 71: David Page, MS, NRP, is the director of the Prehospital Care Research Forum at UCLA and field paramedic with Allina EMS in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. He is an adjunct Senior Lecturer and PhD candidate at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. David was awarded the prestigious Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Educator of the Year in 2011. He was also recognized as one o...

Episode 70: A Special Pink Edition of the podcast. A year ago our friend and colleague from Cary Area EMS Division Chief Tammy Patton was diagnosed with breast cancer. Tammy joins me for a second time on the podcast to talk about her journey, her positive attitude and how the EMS community rallied around her. Check out this album of the fundraiser held for Tammy at caryems.org.

Episode 69: Everitt Binns has 50 years of EMS experience. That is a lot of years and time in this profession. He has held all positions and he is currently the EMS Chief for Grand View Health is Sellersville Pennsylvania. HIs experience as a leader, executive and professor has provided his employees, students and the EMS world with a wealth of knowledge and teachable moments. Ev as he likes to be...

Episode 68: What do do when you mix a pilot and paramedic? Drew Baird is the answer and he is my guest this week on the podcast. Drew always wanted to put his passion of flying and EMS together and he knew it way back when in high school. Learn how this all began as well as Drew talks about his first call in EMS. We discuss his new venture Vector AeroMed. This aeromedical company flies patients al...

Episode 67: Ryan Stark is an associate attorney with Page, Wolfberg & Wirth. His concentration is with HIPAA, Labor, Medicare reimbursement and related areas of the law that affect the EMS industry. Our discussion surrounded the use of Body Camera use within the EMS community. Ryan answers the question that comes up any time you mention Body Cameras and EMS: Is it a HIPAA violation? The discussion...

Episode 66: Steve Daniels is the co-anchor of ABC11 Eyewitness News at 5:00 pm, 6:00 pm, and 11:00 pm Monday-Friday. In addition, Steve anchors Breaking News coverage from the Breaking News Center. Steve joined ABC11 Eyewitness News in June, 1999. Before coming to WTVD, Steve was a correspondent for "Dateline NBC". Steve traveled the country and the world interviewing newsmakers and reporting stor...

Episode 65: Dr. Jose G. Cabanas is a board-certified emergency medicine and EMS physician with a particular expertise on prehospital systems of care, continuous quality improvement and resuscitation. Dr. Cabanas is the Director/Medical Director for Wake County EMS in Wake County, North Carolina. Dr. Cabanas currently serves as a member of the National AHA ECC Systems of Care committee and Mission...

Sgt Eric Sweden from the Raleigh Police Department joins me this week. Sgt Sweden is our first police officer to be on the podcast. We talk about the training he did for the Wake County EMS System regarding verbal judo. Before we get to that topic we banter about his beginnings in public safety. Sgt Sweden was a firefighter, EMT and Paramedic. He even worked as a Paramedic for Wake County EMS. You...

Amy Eisenhauer started her EMS career in 1995. Her entrance into EMS is unusual and a good story. Amy is contributing author for EMS World magazine and has an interactive blog on EMS at TheEMSSiren.com. She speaks nationwide on subjects like hoarding, career development and provider wellbeing. We talk about all of the above and how her blog and writing started (another interesting story). Amy like...

Episode 62: Medic2Medic Podcast goes Hollywood this week. Dr. Neal Baer is a pediatrician and television writer who combines his passion for medicine and storytelling. Prior to his work as Executive Producer and Showrunner for Under the Dome, Dr. Baer was Executive Producer and Showrunner of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit for eleven seasons. Dr. Baer was also a Writer and Producer of the NBC...

One of the most difficult topics this podcast has discussed. The suicide problem that is occurring within the EMS profession. This week's I talk with the founder of the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (FBHA) Jeff Dill. FBHA is dedicated to educating EMS, Police and Fire on suicide awareness. It is the only known organization that collects and validates data on FF/EMT suicides across the Uni...

Episode 60: Wendell Hissrich is the Public Safety Director for the City of Pittsburgh. Wendell's experience includes EMS, Fire and Law Enforcement. His career path includes the City of Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS and many years in the FBI. While in the FBI, Wendell was involved with strategic management of the FBI's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) program for field coordination in the 56 field divi...

Rick SyWassink is an experienced individual with over 30 years experience in death investigation, forensic science, and autopsy protocol. As well as 15 years of adjunct and full time teaching experience at the college level. We discuss crime scene management by EMS, we touch on the violence that is occurring within the EMS community and he takes us through a murder case that took years to solve.

Episode 58: Dr. Bill Atkinson was one of the first paramedic students in North Carolina. Bill has held several leadership roles in and out of EMS. He has held numerous President and CEO positions in healthcare, with his last being at WakeMed Health Hospitals in Raleigh, NC. Bill sits on the NC EMS Advisory Council and is an active consultant. We talk about his early days in EMS and how he chose to...

Deborah Stein has 24 plus years in EMS and currently is an Instructor at the University North Carolina teaching the AHA programs. Before joining UNC, Deborah was a member of my officer corps at Cary Area EMS. She was a Shift Supervisor, headed up our Training Department and was a Division Chief. We discuss those beginning days of my tenure, which you will find very interesting. We talk about Cary...

Mic Gunderson has over 40 years of experience in EMS, leadership and clinical roles. Listen how he goes from a film and photography interest as a career, to the military to EMS. It is a great story. He is currently the Director of Clinical Systems in the Quality and Health Technology Division of the American Heart Association. Mic has authored numerous journal articles. Mic and I meet way back whe...

William Sukitch is a Paramedic with over 24 years of experience in EMS. His path to EMS started while in college. We talk about his early days in EMS and what drove him to join the Navy. In the Navy, Bill was a combat medic. Bill talks openly about about those times and the affect his career in the military had on him. The PTSD that he experiences and how he handles it hopefully will help others....