This elective offers students the opportunity to learn about and experience pre-hospital and disaster medicine through a series of structured didactic sessions and hands-on field experiences. This elective is made possible by several partnerships: WMed Department of Emergency Medicine Division of EMS, Allegan and Kalamazoo County Medical Control Authorities, Kalamazoo County Fire Departments, Kalamazoo County 911 Dispatch, and ambulance services of Life EMS, PrideCare, and LifeCare.

EMS is a relatively new specialty in the house of medicine, becoming an ABEM Boarded subspecialty in September 2010 with the first certification exam administered in 2013. The Kalamazoo County EMS system is a high-performance single tier ALS system with countywide BLS first responders. Serving a population of 250,000 people, the EMS system is made up of four ambulance services covering designated areas of the county and sixteen first responder fire based agencies.

The two-week curriculum is broken into 2 topic blocks, including history of ems and introduction to medical direction and system design. The four-week curriculum is broken into 4 topic blocks, including history of ems, introduction to medical direction and system design, quality improvement and finance, and special ops. The NAEMSP textbook and online FEMA resources will be utilized. Students will ride along with our physician-staffed medical support unit, spend time with fire departments and ambulance agencies, and observe emergency call taking and dispatching at a 911 and ems dispatch center. Additionally, students will participate in monthly local and regional meetings, weekly ems and emergency medicine grand rounds, monthly sim lab, and ems case review(s).

The coursework includes reading assignments, online modules, open-book quizzes, and course evaluations. The course materials will be available through an online learning platform. Students may work ahead on assignments. Course faculty include Wmed EMS Fellowship faculty/fellows and Wmed EM senior residents.