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 paramedically trained professionals can give quality care to patients in emergency situations when time is critical.

Machiavellian principals clearly state the earlier something can be identified and treated the better the likelihood of successful treatment. Ambulance personal are the people with the first opportunity to start treatments. So why are we NOT doing substantial research to treat patients in the ambulance? I do not know the answer to that question. But I do know ways to change that situation. First we need to tell the politicians that our tax dollars need to benefit this area of society. Call, email and write letters to your federal, state and local agencies to support medical research focused in improving care in the ambulance. Only community action will change this situation.

There are also barriers to improving care in the ambulance. These need to be addressed by grassroots actions. Some physicians are hesitant to have ambulance personal ‘diagnose’ and treat some conditions in the ambulance. This may be a quality of care concern or a medical legal issue. Either way the best avenue to address this concern is with evidenced based medicine, which means to do the research studies to prove what can and can’t be done in the ambulance. This is an educational issue as well as a research issue that can be best answered with the help of the NIH and some solid research projects.

Finally when time is critical such as in an ambulance action has ramifications and this causes concern for law suits. Everyone is concerned that if a person has something done to them in an ambulance some ambulance chasing lawyer will sue everyone. Lawyers are costing lives in the ambulance and hospital arenas because no one will diagnose, treat or take any action without mitigating law suit risk. That is just sad. We need to limit the extent to which medical legal issues dictated research, development, diagnosis and treatment of medical emergencies in the ambulance.