Emergency medical services (EMS) rests at the intersection of public health and emergency medicine. It encompasses patients from all age groups, social strata, and geographic regions. EMS physicians work with fire departments, local governments, and hospitals to ensure patients are transported safely and efficiently.
Since its inception, our Department has forged strong partnerships with local and State emergency response agencies to ensure the safe transfer of ill and injured patients. Our Department’s Section of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, led by Associate Professor Ben Lawner, DO, MS, EMT-P, is an essential subspecialty within the Department of Emergency Medicine.
Research
Resident and faculty physicians in our Section of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine have published peer-reviewed studies in publications including
- Annals of Emergency Medicine,
- Resuscitation,
- Prehospital Emergency Care,
- Prehospital and Disaster Medicine,
- Air Medical Journal,
- Health Security,
- Trauma Reports, and
- Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open.
Education and Training
In recent years, our Prehospital and Disaster Medicine Section faculty have structured and standardized EMS electives for medical students and residents, enhanced programs to train critical care staff in ambulances, and developed paramedic training courses that feed into our high-quality, robust pipeline of EMS education.
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- For medical students, our educational offerings include an EMS Elective Rotation (EMER 544) that offers students the opportunity to rotate through various components of prehospital medicine. Previous EMS training or prerequisites are not required. A dedicated elective in Critical Care Transport medicine exists for students who have completed EMER544 or those with prior certification/experience in EMS.
- For residents in our Department’s categorical and combined programs, we offer a Resident EMS Rotation that provides longitudinal exposure to out-of-hospital operations. The bulk of the rotation occurs aboard first line, advanced life support transport units within the Baltimore City Fire Department, with additional ride-along opportunities with the Baltimore County Fire Department, Anne Arundel County Fire Department, and the Maryland ExpressCare Critical Care Transport Program.
- Our section offers EMS host rotations to fellows throughout UMMC, including Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and Surgical Critical Care Fellows.
Additional resources for students pursuing EMS-related coursework are available on our Department's internal intranet site.
Patient Care
Our section of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine administers transport and coordination services that directly affect the quality of care patients receive—before they even enter the hospital.
We provide medical direction for Maryland’s ExpressCare Critical Care Transport Team, which offers timely inter-facility transport of pediatric and adult patients. ExpressCare transport staff includes critical care nurses, paramedics, and emergency medicine technicians (EMTs).
ExpressCare also partners with PHI Air Medical to provide air medical transport for critically ill and injured patients throughout the region. Department faculty provide operational and administrative medical direction for a broad range of jurisdictional EMS programs such as Baltimore City Fire Department, Baltimore County Fire Department, and others.
Section Faculty