Ambulance

Exclusive Interview with IAED Founder Dr Jeff Clawson
New European EMS Network will
Contribute to Global EMS Improvement
Ambulance Today’s Joe Smith quizzed Dr. Jeff Clawson, co-founder of the International
Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED), and inventor of the Priority Dispatch System.
Recognised globally as the Father of modern dispatch, Dr. Clawson offers his views on
global partnership in EMS development and provides a fascinating insight into the
amazing growth of Priority Dispatch Protocols since its formation in the late 1970s.
JS: What led you to develop the
first dispatch protocol for the North
American EMD Network in 1978?
JC: Priority Dispatch Protocols introduced
into the public safety communications
world in 1978 were designed for a specific
purpose: to ensure that the right thing is
sent to the right place, in the right way,
at the right time and the right things are
done over the phone until the troops
arrive. This is the most important reason
these protocols exist. The prioritisation of
response and the orderliness of treatment is
the true value of such protocol “plans.” Preplanning
of emergency response is essential
science in a healthcare environment that
stresses efficiency of care, and the medical
protocols provide a precise and detailed
plan for the study of a biomedical problem
or for a regimen of care.
JS: When you created the North
American EMD Network did you
envisage the protocols for prearrival
instructions for dispatchers
as a purely regional EMS innovation
or did you already anticipate its
adoption by EMS systems globally?
JC: A unified protocol model for all to
use was always the goal of the Medical
Priority Dispatch System (MPDS ® ), now
in Version 13.0, and the same can be said
of the Police Priority Dispatch System
(PPDS ® ) and the Fire Priority Dispatch
System (FPDS ® ), now in Versions 5.0 and
6.1, respectively. A unified system of a single
core protocol, modified through a scientific
method process and routinely distributed
to everyone ensures that every protocol
benefits from the experience and research
of the other users. In the same way the
heart and resuscitation councils maintain
a core protocol for CPR, BLS, and ACLS,
the College of Fellows, a standards setting
body within the International Academies
of Emergency Medical Dispatch ® (IAED ),
provides stability and reliability to dispatch
worldwide. Importantly, the Academies
continue to be a strong professional voice
for emergency dispatchers and are taking
an active role in the policies and politics of
public safety dispatching.
JS: Can you tell us more about how
you developed your original priority
dispatch pre-arrival instructions into
three separate protocols for Medical,
Fire and Police services?
JC: The three sets of protocols—medical,
fire, and police are based upon the same
time-proven methods developed over
30 years of research, testing, and quality
assurance. These protocols were initiated
by pre-establishing for Fire and Police,
the Academy Councils of Standards, and
Curriculum Boards, populated with world
experts in those disciplines. Each adhered
to the protocol structure objectives that we
learned the hard way over many years in
Medical. As with any protocols, version 1.0
is simply a starting point of the evolutionary
process, and with a scientific method-based
process, they are guaranteed to evolve and
improve if that process is maintained and
supported.
The FPDS started in 2000 and is now
at version 6.1, while the PPDS began
development in 2001 and is at version 5.0.
Police is the most divergent of the three, as
it requires early identification of suspect and
vehicle descriptors, and quick deployment
of mobile police patrollers, which puts
them at significant risk. The provision of
dispatch data to the mobile data computers
in the cars demands a lot of special sorting,
filtering, and other human engineering
factors which are not as essential in the
Medical and Fire disciplines. The fluidity of
the events is also a differentiating factor
in Police that is challenging to account
accurately and safely for. The Academy
more recently added a 4th pillar—ECNS
(Emergency Communication Nurse
System ) protocols, training, certification,
and accreditation—just like the other
disciplines. It is just starting to flower in a
world with an ever-increasing volume of
999 calls.
Visit our website at www.emergencydispatch.org
JS: How exactly did North American
EMD grow into IAED?
JC: The Network was an initial attempt to
get like minds in dispatch to work together
as a forum but wasn’t envisioned properly
for what needed to be done, hence version
2 – the Academy. Since the Academy was
first formed in 1988, it was the intent
of the founders to nurture and develop
the organisation into an internationally
recognised and standard-setting scientific
and academic institution. We are an
international forum for discussing standards
and issues relating to medical protocol
and one of several international EMS
organisations dedicated to improving
patient care and maximising the efficiency of
EMS worldwide.
JS: Since the formation of IAED
how rapidly has it grown? What
is its reach globally? How many
countries does it reach and how
many emergency service personnel
globally use MPDS dispatch
protocols?
JC: Founded almost 30 years ago, IAED is
the world’s foremost standard-setting and
certification organisation for emergency
communication centres with over 57,000
members in 45 countries. More than
3,400 communication centres use IAED’s
76 Spring 2016 | Ambulancetoday