Early figures from the beginning of 1998 indicate continuing growth in volume. The program continues as a recruitment draw for the residency, and is an integral component of the training program for residents in the department of emergency medicine. Air Care is currently planning a collaborative effort with Children's Hospital Medical Center to provide air medical transport services to pediatric patients with severe respiratory failure requiring specialized care that is unavailable elsewhere in this region. Efforts also are underway to further involve Air Care in capturing acute stroke patients from our rural referral area to allow application of approved but underutilized, and experimental, therapeutic modalities.
Several studies are underway, or anticipated.
A pilot trial evaluating an alternative to standard, direct laryngoscopy as a method of in-flight airway management is underway, and should be completed in the next month. The EMS fellow, Sebastian Rueckert, M.D., is planning a trial to examine outcome differences in automotive trauma victims who are transported by air versus those in whom air transport is requested, but cannot be completed due to weather. Air Care was the host program for the 1997 Association of Air Medical Transport Services Annual Conference.