Joseph F. Clark, Ph.D.

A colleague asked me about the partners I had when working on the ambulance. She specifically wanted to know what female partners I had and if I had any female partners. Yes, I did indeed have several female partners. However, they were not as visible in My Ambulance Education as some of the other partners [...]

I had a chance to spend the day in an emergency room this past week. Fortunately it was not because of an emergency for myself or loved one. Rather I was shadowing a physician to evaluate technologies used in the emergency room and to help identify areas of technological improvement. This was an interesting assignment [...]

There are people who proclaim themselves as experts. But how does one become a perceived an expert? Having a lot of information on a subject does not make an expert. A text book has a lot of knowledge but that text book will not answer a question without someone looking in it and it needs [...]

When I worked on the ambulance I was doing that to ‘help people’ and my goal in my career over 20 years later is still to ‘help people.’ On the ambulance and when I worked in the Emergency room I was helping people one person at a time. That was rewarding, frustrating and hard work, [...]

The National Institutes of Health fund about 40,000 grants to do medical research. Of those funded projects only 14 have to do with medical research in the pre-hospital setting. This is just sad. Over 50% of all medical emergencies that come to hospitals arrive via the ambulance. Paramedics, firefighters, EMTs, Police and a host of [...]

I had my first book signing at the firefighter’s convention Saturday, April 25, 2009 in Indianapolis IN. This conference is huge with over 25,000 people from all over the country. The signing occurred at booth 301 with Firefighters Books (www.firebooks.com) from 11:00 to 1:30. It was great fun talking to new people on the job [...]

This Saturday I am doing my first book signing. I’m not deluding myself in thinking it will be a big event. I am attending the FDIC conference (Fire fighters and EMTs) and signing books at one of the booksellers. The conference is in the Indianapolis Convention Center Thursday to Saturday April 22-25th. I’m looking forward [...]

I do stroke research and research associated with neurologic emergencies. During a stroke and after some kinds of head injuries one million brain cells can die per minute. As minutes tick by more and more of the brain is irreversibly lost. Ambulance personnel know when this is happening based on their training, but medical technology [...]

Drunks are a part of the job. That is the theme of one of the chapters in “My Ambulance Education” but it is also a statement of the obvious for ambulance and emergency personnel. I would however like to mention that a majority of drunks who are given quality care by emergency service workers are [...]

Did you know that not every firefighter is a paramedic? Also, not every paramedic is a firefighter. Every time you see an ambulance that ambulance may have EMTs alone or paramedics. I’m talking about Advanced Life Support versus Basic Life Support. ALS and BLS ambulances both have skilled people providing medical care at different levels [...]